Date with a Replicator
by Deaddak
Summary: What happens when a Replicator from Stargate Atlantis enters the USS Voyager? Only Q knows but he's not one for spoilers.
1. Chapter 1: Strange readings

Q listened with a bemused smile, undetected by Captain Kathryn Janeway and Commander Chakotay of the Federation Starship _Voyager_, given their miniscule comprehensions.

It was the eve of their soon-to-be voyage into the realm of what they amusingly termed as "quantum slipstream." A process of propulsion the omnipotent entity found to be modest to say the least.

"Any plans?" asked Janeway, her voice betraying an expectation Q had seldom heard from her.

"Nothing special, date with a replicator." Chakotay said with a hint of merriment to his voice.

Although it was scant seconds before the Captain would give her reply, in Q time, Q began a slow ponder as he grinned in his mischievous way. He knew what her reply would be, he'd seen this episode. Although speaking of episodes, he quickly thought of another episode...of a different time and place from Earth in which the more primitive people of their twentieth/twenty-first century era had begin a different yet no less tumultuous tenure into the Galaxy, but means of an ancient ring called a Stargate.

_So, he has a date with a Replicator, does he…_ Q said to himself as he snapped his fingers…

In Chakotay's quarters, she appeared in a blinding flash of white light, looking around. This was not the homeworld of the Replicators.

_Where am I?_ She wondered, taking in the view of the stars beyond the viewport. She frowned, not recognizing the constellations. She was on a vessel, that much was evident, given the artificial gravity and the construction of the carpeted deck and the curvature of the hull.

Closing her eyes, she attempted to commune with the Replicator Collective, hearing nothing but her own troubled thoughts. There *was* a presence she could feel. Two of them in fact, but she was unable to discern their natures or their precise locations in the ship.

Turning away from the viewport, she headed towards the exit of these quarters she found herself in. They certainly were luxurious, by human standards at any rate. The strange thin portal refused to open, but she simply adjusted her nanites to allow her to phase through the door, her white clad body cascading with a silvery sheen as she exited into the corridor. She stood there in shock. She was certain she had been unable to do that.

She stood, listening to the hum of the ship, glancing up and down the wide corridor, briefly admiring the strange silvery construction of its bulkheads.

Hearing two voices approaching from around a curve in the corridor, she stood still, unafraid yet intrigued…

Meanwhile, on the Bridge, Harry Kim was working on his slipstream permutations at the Operations Station as part of his flightplan he had been tasked to come up with by Captain Janeway. A tonal beep of his console made him frown as he checked internal sensors, double checking and triple checking the readings. _What the hell…_ he thought as he tapped the internal Comms, hating to interrupt the Captain and the Commander.

"Ensign Kim to Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay." Harry said with a twinge of apology in his voice.

Captain Janeway looked up from her plate of food she was enjoying as she and Chakotay heard Mr. Kim's incoming voice. "Yes, ensign?" she inquired as Chakotay took another bite of his food.

"Ma'am, I just got a strange sensor reading from outside Commander Chakotay's quarters. There was a brief metallic reading followed by an unknown biosignature, the lifesign appears to be human, shall I sound intruder alert?" asked ensign Kim. The Captain frowned as Chakotay nodded his agreement with Mr. Kim, swallowing his food as she said "yes, ensign, notify security and are there any crew members present in that section?"

"Yes ma'am, as a matter of fact…"

**Outside Chakotay's quarters…**

Seven of Nine, tertiary adjunct of unimatrix 01, more commonly and simply called Seven by her shipmates and friends, let out a sigh as she walked in tandem with The Doctor. She was fond of her holographic friend, but in his efforts to better her social skills, he could be somewhat...irritating.

For once, instead of the holodeck, the hologram had suggested he and Seven simply walk around the ship for today's social lesson. She had agreed, as thanks for his efforts yesterday of helping her during her intoxication in engineering during the celebration and unveiling of the quantum slipstream drive.

"So you see, Seven, that is what it means to curtsy, a tradition practiced on Earth centuries ago, a lost art, you might say!" the Doctor said with a twinkle in his eyes as he smiled, his arms up in front of him as he spoke, gesturing for effect. He and Seven stopped in surprise as they saw a woman standing outside Commander Chakotay's quarters, clad in white with a square pattern in the torso area of her clothing.

Seven paused, guessing the woman to be about her own age in equivalency, youthful and slender like herself, with long dark hair and attractive facial features and eyes the same color as her own. The Doctor to his credit, kept his hands raised, turning them to the woman in a gesture of friendly greetings. "Hello there, miss…?" he asked as the woman regarded them both with casual aplomb, her hands loose at her sides.

She smiled, even as Seven remained guarded while the woman spoke, "I'm Fran. Hello."

"Red alert," Q said to no one in particular with a grin as the intruder alert sounded throughout Voyager.


	2. Chapter 2: Q and Uh Oh!

Seven of Nine and The Doctor stood apart from the intruder who identified herself as Fran, Seven's eyes narrowing further with suspicion as the Doctor continued to smile and hold up his hands in a sign that he meant no harm.

As the intruder alert alarm sounded for a few more beats before going silent, two security personnel came up behind them and stood on either side, their hands inching towards their phasers.

Fran looked down, seeing that they were reaching for what were clearly energy weapons of some sort. A slight curious tilting of her head was the only sign she gave as they pointed their phasers at her.

"Gentlemen, please, this young woman is clearly confused, maybe pointing phasers at her isn't the best way to nurture a positive first impression, hmm?" the Doctor said as Seven continued to stare at the mysterious woman, never taking her eyes off her.

_Seven, Doctor, are you all right?_ Chakotay's voice issued from their comm badges.

The Doctor tapped his and kept up his friendly smile as he replied "yes, Commander, we have the...visitor just outside your quarters, a young woman, sir."

_Security should be there, have them escort her to the brig, Captain's orders, we're enroute there now to question her._

Seven spoke up, "I recommend that I and the Doctor accompany them, I can't explain it, Captain, but this woman feels like...kin, almost." The Doctor turned and his brow furrowed at his friend. _Understood, Chakotay out._

Fran blinked, hearing the voice of the man and she had a strange thought. She liked the sound of his voice. Although she was still new to life, she found as she experienced more and more, she was more and more prone to feelings and thoughts. Her last memory was of standing in that facility on the Replicator homeworld, Asuras and closing her eyes and beginning her final purpose. This thought troubled her now. Was her mission successful? Could this possibly be a mind probe of her brethren? If it was successful, where was she, when was she? The four people standing not too far away were human, although thanks to her astoundingly acute visual acuity, she could see that the balding man was only human in appearance, he was a hologram, although more sophisticated one than anything even the Replicators, Lanteans, Asgard, humans of earth or Atlantis could create. She also knew that one of the two strange presences she had felt was beside him, the woman with the strange metallic implant on her face around her eye. She sensed...nanites...no, these were somehow different. Maybe not less advanced or more advanced, but yes just different. Their attire also was not that of the Atlantis expedition.

Q grinned, as he watched, invisible to them as he floated nearby. They all walked towards him but he merely smiled wider, intending to follow and find out what would happen next. Yes, he knew, but being omnipotent, at least appearing so to the humans, he chose purposefully to forget his everclear foreknowledge of the future. He wanted to be surprised. Still, there was one last tweak he wanted to make, and so it was done with a snap of his fingers. The Q continuum sensed his activities and they recalled him. Before he knew it, tendrils emerged from the bulkhead of the ship, coiling around him and before he could voice his objection they pulled him into the darkness. He had some explaining to do, especially to his mate whom he had left with their son, Q or Junior as his father called him. Uh oh.

**Some time later…**

Captain Janeway and Chakotay entered the brig and the Captain dismissed her security officers with a nod. Fran stood from her seat on the rear bench, her eyes going right to the Commander. Chakotay stopped, swallowing nervously. Why did she stare at him so intensely?

"I'm Kathryn Janeway, Captain of the Federation Starship Voyager, I'm sorry for confining you to our brig, but we're about to undertake a very important mission and suddenly you show up, so I'm sure you may understand our need for piece of mind."

Fran nodded as she kept her eyes on Chakotay. She smiled, and he smiled back. She blushed. Wait, she blushed? Was this man the other presence she had felt?

Meanwhile, Janeway conferred with Seven and the Doctor. "...and then she said her name was Fran, but so far we have no idea who she is and I took the liberty of consulting the Federation database. No person matches her description." Seven nodded, having confirmed the Doctor's findings after he finished his report.

"I also can't explain my...feeling, Captain, it's as if part of me knows her in some way," Seven said, looking over to Fran.

Fran slowly walked to the forcefield, raising her hand as she probed it with her fingers, wincing slightly from the jolt as the air crackled from the contact. "Ow!" Fran instinctively put her finger to her lips, surprised at the sting. This only fueled her need to have her questioned answered, but as she burned with them, so to did they, she knew.

Captain Janeway approached their guest, her hands raised in a concerned manner. "Our internal sensors said you are human, but there was also a metallic reading we briefly detected shortly after you arrived, please tell me, Ms. Fran, do you know how you came to be aboard my ship?"

Fran sucked her finger tips a bit, lowering them as she spoke. "I don't know, Captain Janeway, I was fulfilling my purpose to perish, but I-" Chakotay spoke up, "Sorry, to perish?" Fran nodded, frowning. Again she seemed to be feeling strange. Before she arrived here, she knew her purpose, she knew what she was created for, but now...now she was uncertain. Clearly, she was now continuing her existence and now that she was she felt like she wanted to keep continuing to live, and she continued on with her story.

"I was created in a lab on Atlantis, and-" "Atlantis, that's an ancient Earth legend, a myth!" chimed in the Doctor. Fran grew mad at the hologram. Anger, so this is what that felt like…

"No, it's an Ancient city ship...do you want to hear this or not?" she asked, sounding mad.

Janeway nodded, speaking in her best diplomatic tone. "Sorry for our Doctor, he wasn't programmed with the best bedside manner," she said in jest, giving the hologram a *just joking* fleeting glance to her right. The Doctor frowned a bit and Seven stifled a smile, the corners of her lips twitching upwards ever so slightly.

Fran nodded as she continued again, "I am a Replicator...I may appear and act human, but I am composed of trillions of nanites, interconnected to create this body. I was created for the purpose of destroying other Replicators which threatened both the Pegasus and Milky Way Galaxies. When I am from is the earth year 2008 and clearly this is a different time and place... The city of Atlantis was created by the Altarans, also called the Ancients because they were a civilization many millions of years old who created the stargates. Great rings created from an element called Naquada and which spanned whole galaxies and generated wormholes allowing near instantaneous travel between plants and even space based gates via ships. I know this because I was allowed to read a few key aspects of the Atlantis Expedition's reports...and I also assimilated the Ancient's database, which contained a vast swath of knowledge. Doctor McKay, Rodney, my creator from Earth, was unaware I had done this. I may have been created as a weapon, but I was still a person, I am one...we have free will, don't we?" Fran stopped, staring at Chakotay.

They stood there in silence, all four were stunned, it all sounded so incredible, but at the same time, given what they already knew about alternate realities and time travel and certain entities of the single letter variety who would not be named here….

"So...can I come out now?" Fran asked with a bashful smile at Chakotay. She really liked that tattoo over his left eye and she wanted to get to know him. So very much. She was here, she was free and she wanted to explore this place and this handsome man. Nothing was going to stop her from living now.

_Nothing,_ she thought to herself as her right hand clenched into a tight fist.


	3. Chapter 3: Much Ado about nothing?

The Captain, Chakotay, Seven and the Doctor turned to glance at each other, keenly aware of the astounding and troubling tale their guest had just told them, though they suspected it was just the tip of the iceberg, as it were.

It was time for a conference. The captain informed Fran that she would be detained just a little longer. She ordered Seven and the Doctor to remain for a while to conduct more intensive scans, which she assured Fran were not harmful yet necessary. Fran merely nodded, smiling at commander Chakotay. For his part, the commander was simultaneously flattered and disturbed.

Luckily both Seven and the Doctor had seen fit to bring tricorders with them, although Seven secretly wished she could go to Astrometrics and use those sensors instead. As the captain and Chakotay left to convene the senior officers, Chakotay stole one last glance at Fran and winked at her, a move which surprised even him. He left the brig with Kathryn, a smile on his face.

"Well, I certainly can't complain about this not being a very strange and important day!" remarked the Doctor, to which Seven and Fran both frowned a bit. Often times the Doctor could be exceedingly prone to state the obvious. Seven proceeded to drop the forcefield, and she and her colleague entered the brig to run their scans as the field snapped back on, she with her standard Starfleet tricorder, he with his medical one. Fran stood there and watched Seven, still annoyed with the holographic doctor.

"So, can you please tell me about this ship, where am I...when am I?" she questioned as she stood still, her hands spread slightly.

Seven proceeded to tell Fran about earth's history since her time, which was of course almost entirely different. The current year as the Replicator understood it. The first warp flight, the concept of warp travel, the expansion and formation of the United Federation of Planets, their own sorted history, and of course the Doctor chimed in with his customary flare, adding his own touches, concluding with their current mission as they were about to attempt their second ever foray into slipstream space.

"So...wrap travel, I see, it's far less advanced and much much slower than my...reality's means of hyperspace travel." The former Borg and the hologram had since completed their scans and the Doctor looked up from checking his readings. "I'm sorry, hyper...space?"

"Well," Fran continued, continually annoyed by the Doctor's very presence, "It's similar to what you just described as quantum slipstream drive, but even faster than that." Fran started to pace, no longer content to just stand there. "As you are well aware, underneath normal space there are many layers of subspace. Our form of faster-than-light travel involves opening a window into one of the layers and flying through it. It is not limited by stellar matter in normal space, meaning we can travel in a straight line through the galaxy, and the only limit is the power generation required to multiply the speed at which we travel through hyperspace."

Seven and the Doctor continued to listen to the Replicator, Seven finding it most intriguing as it was similar to the transwarp technology used by the Borg yet more advanced than even that. The Doctor just nodded along, listening yet clearly less interested, after all, he was a doctor, not a scientist.

**Meanwhile, in Voyager's conference room behind the Bridge…**

"So that's all we know so far," concluded the Captain, having briefed her assembled senior officers and Mr. Neelix. "This all sounds so far fetched, but isn't it also exciting!" came Neelix's enthusiastic voice. "Nevertheless, as _far fetched_ as it may seem," came Tuvok's dry vulcan logic, "this woman sounds like she poses a significant security risk." Ensign kim was next to speak up as he said "well of course, Tuvok, but think about it you guys, she's a machine, right? An advanced machine made by advanced humans, who knows what she could teach us, how she might be able to get us home!"

Tom Paris chuckled as he quickly chimed in, "careful, Harry, you haven't even met her yet and it already sounds like she's your next crush!"

B'Elanna Torres, the chief engineer couldn't help but laugh at that, earning a look from the ensign.

Chakotay was the last to speak, his hands clasped in front of him on the conference table.

"This woman, this Fran...I don't think she means us or the ship or the crew any harm, and if there's something she can do to maybe help us during the slipstream flight, I say we let her and besides, maybe she'd be willing to work with us if I were to get to know her better...she seems to look at me like she...likes me."

Captain Janeway felt a small ping of jealousy. She kept her face calm, a small furrow of her brow in concern on her face. She knew deep down she cared for commander Chakotay as more than a trusted friend and first officer, and he felt the same, but due to their circumstances, a relationship between the two commanding officers could compromise their leadership of Voyager. "Very well, commander, we'll let her out, but I want a constant sensor lock on her at all times." "Aye, captain," came ensign Kim's reply. Tuvok spoke again, "there is also the matter of that unexplained metallic reading, perhaps commander Chakotay can ask our guest about that as well, it could prove to be pertinent information about her and her capabilities."

"A good idea, please proceed, commander. We'll resume normal operations for the time being, and ensign, please continue working on your plan for the slipstream flight, even if Fran can assist us, we'll proceed on our original flight plan. Mr. Tuvok, please go to the brig and escort Fran to meet with me and Chakotay in my ready room. Dismissed." The senior staff stood and headed out, still knowing there were things to do before they commenced their plan.

Janeway and Chakotay soon entered her ready room as they waited for Tuvok and Fran. "I know that look, Kathryn," Chakotay said as he sat beside her, taking her right hand and clasping his left over it. "You know me so well, Chakotay...it's just with this flight we'll be going for, even if Harry can make it work, a million more things can go wrong...what if it's too dangerous? Now all of a sudden this mysterious Replicator shows up...a weapon. She said it herself, she was made to end, but we've seen beings like this before...do we really have the right to use her like she was being used where she came from?"

Chakotay smiled warmly at his dear friend. "We're not going to be using her, Kathryn, we're going to ask her if she can help us. She's clearly a sentient artificial life form, like Data from the _Enterprise_. Captain Picard treats him like he's a person, and from what I could tell, back where she was, they were worried about her too. Whatever happened to get her here, she is here now and we're about to travel tens of thousands of lightyears to get home. Even Seven of Nine has done a lot to help us, and we both know how you and she butted horns when she was first liberated from the Collective." Captain Janeway smiled, turning her hand up to grip his as they squeezed each other's hands with affection.

"You always know what to say, even when we have our arguments, I don't think I could have been as good a captain without you…" she leaned in and so did he, their eyes closed as their lips pressed to each other.

They were so enamored in their kiss, they didn't hear the soft hiss of the doors opening, nor Fran's quick sure footfalls as she entered, followed by Tuvok, who carried a PADD with the Doctor and Seven's report. The doors hissed shut but Fran stopped short, her eyes growing wide.

"No, hey, what are you doing, get away from him!" Fran screamed suddenly, lunging at them and as Tuvok attempted to hold her back, she pivoted swiftly, striking him in the chest with her open right hand and sending him crashing against the wall with a pained grunt. Chakotay stood quickly, his hand going up to his comm-badge, but too slowly. Fran's body sideswiped Chakotay as she lunged, who fell to the side on the floor, stunned from the impact. She was so strong!

Fran screamed, her teeth gritted as she locked her hands around the captain's throat who clutched at the Replicator's wrists, Kathryn's eyes bulging as her face turned purple fast…

"NNNNNN!"


	4. Chapter 4: Let's call itconcern

Chakotay got up as fast as he could, rushing Fran and his managed to knock her off balance with his frantic momentum, long enough for Tuvok who had also recovered quickly to pull her away from the captain.

"Kathryn? Kathryn!?" Chakotay shouted as he stood over her unconscious body, remembering his comm-badge and he tapped it. "Chakotay to the bridge, beam me and the captain directly to sickbay!" They quickly became engulfed in the transporter beam and disappeared.

While this was happening, Tuvok attempted to subdue Fran with the vulcan nerve pinch, which proved woefully ineffective. Fran was on the floor sitting awkwardly near the bulkhead as she watched Chakotay and Captain Janeway become engulfed in blue lights and disappear in a fading sparkle. She reached out, letting her hand drop as she shook. It was all so strange. Before she arrived in this alternate space-time reality, she had been poised, certain of her role, accepting. Now she was emotional, survivalistic, maybe animalistic and she found she didn't like it and yet...part of her did.

She felt a strong (by human standards anyway) pinch on her left shoulder-neck junction and she turned and looked up to see the dark skinned man who had escorted her here. "I'm very sorry...I...please, let go, that hurts." Tuvok let go and Fran stood, resting a hand on the railing which divided the office space from the couch/rest area. Tuvok intoned "I must return you to the brig, Fran." She nodded, her eyes downcast. She felt shame, so this is what that felt like too. She was still very naive when it came to being around humans.

Still, she thought to herself as her thought brought a small smile to her face….I was born yesterday.

As Tuvok and the Replicator exited through the side exit, the vulcan heard ensign Kim's voice over the comm. "_Tuvok, what happened, is the captain all right?_" "Yes, ensign Kim, I am escorting Fran back to the brig and she is cooperating. Lieutenant Paris has the bridge, once I report to the Commander in sickbay, I will inform the rest of the crew." He paused as the door to the turbolift opened and Fran walked in. "Do not worry, Tuvok out," said the chief of security with a tap of his comm-badge, closing the connection.

"Easy for you to say…" muttered Harry to himself as he traded looks with his best friend who had swivelled from his post at the conn on his chair. As Tom Paris stood to walk to the captain's chair, he pressed his lips together, sitting down as a young junior officer took up Tom's usual post. They were all worried.

**Some time later in sickbay**

Chakotay paced at the foot of the main biobed in the surgical bay, his hands fidgeting listlessly.

The Doctor was too busy scanning the captain to make his report on his readings of Fran, hovering over his commanding officer with concern. "Commander Chakotay, will you please stand still, your pacing is distracting me from my diagnosis." Chakotay stopped, crossing his arms. "Sorry Doctor...how is Kathryn?" The Doctor arched an eyebrow slightly in a very Tuvok way. "She's unconscious...Fran stopped the blood flow to her brain for several seconds. I've had to induce a coma to protect her higher brain functions...again."

The commander rested his hands on the foot of the biobed on the bed's auxiliary controls. "I hope we can handle this mission without her...I think she'd want us to proceed. Even when she's out cold she always wants to do what is right to get this crew home, it's her driving force these last five years."

The Doctor nodded as Seven came in, carrying the same PADD that Tuvok had had earlier. She came to stand by Chakotay, handing it to him. "Tuvok said he would be best served standing guard and manning the brig. He requested I retrieve the report on the Replicator." She looked at the Doctor and at Captain Janeway, her lips turned down in a frown, briefly.

"Seven, will you assist me please," said the Doctor as he proceeded to attach a cortical monitor to Janeway's right temple. She nodded curtly as she went to get the appropriate equipment in the workspace beyond the hologram's office. Chakotay stood, reading the report on Fran, becoming more and more concerned. According to them, they hypothesized that Fran's nanites could bypass the bonds of conventional matter, allowing her to pass through it, although from what they saw she couldn't move through force fields.

They also reported that she had superior strength, beyond even Seven's Borg augmented strength or that of the other vulcan or Lieutenant Torres. Her passing through his quarters' locked door must explain the metallic reading. As Seven and the Doctor worked to save the captain, Chakotay set the report down, a new look of determination in his brown eyes.

"Doctor, stay here and keep a close eye on Kathryn. Seven, when you're done go to Astrometrics and begin to reconfigure the sensors for detailed internal scans. They should be able to track and scan Fran much better than our ship's sensors can." The Borg nodded as the commander left, having told them he was going to the brig to get some answers from the Replicator.

"Did you hear Chakotay...you know that's twice now that I've heard him call Captain Janeway _Kathryn_…" The Doctor said, activating his delta-wave inducer, the same machine he had used before during the ordeal between the Borg and Species 8472,

Seven nodded as she checked the sickbay's main console. "He expresses a familiarity with the captain no one else has, I have observed since coming aboard Voyager. I believe you recently told me this may indicate romantic interest." The hologram smiled at his pupil. "Yes, Seven. It's obvious that they have an easy connection, much like you and I. You see, I feel as though we've...grown closer." "Closer?" "We've become more than colleagues...we're….friends!"

Seven nodded as her voice took on happier tone. "Friends, agreed!" The Doctor smiled again, nodding as she bid him farewell and left to undertake the task which she had been assigned.

The Doctor completed his calibrations, a frown returning to his face. He knew Captain Janeway would be okay, she was a strong willed woman and a good friend. He was no counsellor, but he was programmed with more than a few psychological subroutines. He knew how close this crew had become, and he himself had felt what it was like to care deeply. To love. As he induced the coma on the captain, he looked up at the door where Seven had just exited. He imagined it was her here now, injured. He couldn't accept that. He was her mentor, as she herself had said yesterday during their celebration in engineering….

_Yesterday, Sickbay._

Seven laughed as she stumbled against the biobed, swaying a little. "Resistance is no use!"

The Doctor did his best to smile, easing her to sit up on the diagnostic bed in the surgical bay.

"I'm sorry Doctor...if I had known synthehol would do this to me, I wouldn't have had it! It would seem my motor skills and inhibitions are...offline *ha ha ha ha ha!*" Seven burst into laughter, jovally slapping the Doctor's shoulder.

He nodded and chuckled along with her. "Yes, Seven, now hold on, I'm going to give you this injection to counteract the effects…" As he moved to press the hypospray to her neck, she grabbed his arm in her right hand. "No, please, not yet Doctor...there is s-something I want to say to you." She stared into his eyes, leaning closer. "Since I came to Voyager, many of the crew see me as Borg and I know it must not be easy to...see an enemy." The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but she brought her left hand to his lips to silence him with a touch. Seven of Nine looked at her hand, eyeing the silvery metallic covering over her fingers.

"Once...B'Lanna Torres asked me if I felt anything for all the lives I helped to destroy and the truth is...I do...part of me...the little girl, trapped in the body forced to grow up before I should have. I remember every life I assimilated. I watched them cry out for their families. They looked horrified as I...as I…." Seven wiped at her eyes with her right hand. "Oh...Seven…" the Doctor said softly, setting down his hypospray and he wrapped his arms around her, trying to be a comfort.

She held him, tearing up more. He felt to warm, so real, so human. He was one of the first individuals, apart from the Captain, Tuvok and Chakotay to treat her not as an ex-borg, but as a person, as a human being. "Thank you, Doctor…" she whispered, feeling a great gratitude and fondness for him. As they slowly pulled away, she turned her head and pressed her lips to his...

The Doctor smiled, his fingers pressing to his lips as he remembered that. Not long after that, he had eased her back onto the biobed, pressing the hypospray to her neck and rendering her unconscious so his treatment could run its course. It was some hours after that she had awoken and remembered very little of her experience. To his credit, the Doctor had hidden his disappointment behind his honest relief that she had come out of it none the worse for wear.

Seven, meanwhile, had entered the Astrometrics Lab and had begun her recalibrations to switch the ships sensors. She worked swiftly to reconfigure the external advanced sensor array to work via the internal network. As she worked, her own memories of the night before were clear to her, fuzzy perhaps, but she did possess a recollection second-to-none for a human, further enhanced by her borg implants.

She brought her right hand to her lips, a blush coloring her cheeks as she smiled….

_The Brig_

Chakotay stood beyond the force field, his hands clasped behind his back as he watched Fran, having sent Tuvok to take command on the bridge and get Harry to finalize his preparations. It would have to be Harry and Tom manning the_ Delta Flyer_ today when the slipstream flight took place in 9 hours. It was late in the night already and he needed sleep, he would need to be clear headed in the morning, especially since by now the crew would have been informed.

"Say something...please…?" Fran asked, sitting on the bench, her hands folded on her lap.

Chakotay sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "You probably don't need to sleep...but listen, I know in some twisted way, you like me. We only just met and no one develops feelings this fast."

Fran nodded, her reply careful as she tried to hide her remorse in her voice. "I can work very quickly though, I can think and move and feel faster. You know, my kind...the Replicators...some of them had believed that they could move beyond our machine existence. That's another story though, but my point is, we can change, they wanted to...some of them. I want to. I'm so very sorry for what I did, please. Chakotay?"

The commander neared the force field. "Just because you can change and adapt quickly, doesn't mean we can move that fast. I'm sorry, but if you want to earn our trust, it's going to have to be in the morning. You have a lot of things we can learn, and if you want us to trust you, you're going to have to wait."

With that, Chakotay turned and left. Fran remained silent, a slight trembling of her hands the only indication she was troubled. Damn it, she thought. Why was she like this? So emotional, so human feeling? It was very strange, her Replicator abilities were all activated when she arrived her, yet she still felt human sensations and emotions. She stood, her form rippled and became silvery and as she reappeared, she was shorter, smiling as she stood there, as Kathryn Janeway. "Trust you say, _Commander._ Dear Chakotay...your trust is about to change faces."


	5. Chapter 5: 5 Minutes to Midnight

In the minutes it took for Seven of Nine to make the final adjustments to the ship's sensors, having taken them offline momentarily, and at the same time for the crewman to enter the brig, Fran had taken the guise of the Captain. Her timing was impeccable.

"Crewmen Anderson, let me out at once, that's an order!" she said in Janeway's voice, perfectly imitating her tone and inflections and air of authority.

"Captain?" questioned crewman Anderson, having been sent to start the night shift and as such he was utterly ignorant of what was happening, only having been alerted about an intruder a couple of hours ago as with the rest of the crew thanks to the klaxxon.

He started to key in his passcode to unlock the brig's control console, when the voice of the chief of security came in over the ship-wide comm and still he continued to work.

_Attention all hands, Captain Janeway is in a coma. _Tuvok continued to speak, however, Anderson had not stopped and just as he tuned in to Tuvok's announcement, he had dropped the force field. Fran stepped out, walking quickly to the crewman and she reached up and pushed her left hand into his forehead, her action rendering him both unconscious and also altering his short term memory, he would awaken in the morning with a headache and wondering how he could have fallen asleep on the floor.

Fran smiled, still disguised as Janeway and she left the brig, heading to commander Chakotay's quarters….

Meanwhile, Tuvok's announcement continued: _As you may know, at approximately 08:00 hours this evening, an intruder was detected, a young human woman. She has been confined to the brig. We are sending visual scans of the individual. She is not human, she is a machine, composed of trillions of nanites and is to be considered a very dangerous security risk. She is the one who endangered Captain Janeway's life, however, the Doctor has assured us that the Captain will recover in a day or more. Commander Chakotay is in command and despite what happened we are proceeding with our slipstream flight in the morning at 08:00. Thank you._

Fran, as Janeway, rolled her eyes. She certainly was not liking a few of these organics, to say nothing of her displeasure for their Doctor and their Captain.

It was most fortuitous that most crewmen were retired to their quarters this late at night. Anyone she encountered she merely restrained and wiped their minds, having quickly mastered this technique so that they no longer fell into unconsciousness if she wished but merely became dazed.

In Astrometrics, Seven was busy monitoring the sensors, but the reason she could not detect Fran was vexing to say the least. Just prior to her reconfiguring of the internal sensor grid, she has easily been able to keep a lock on Fran's human bio-signs. She ran a diagnostic, certain that she had not made an error. Still, if this Replicator could do everything her findings and that of the Doctor's suggested, there was no reason she could not have found a way to mask her life signs, after all, the Borg employed similar methods when they travelled back in time to 21st century Earth and transported to the Enterprise-E without being detected. She knew Tuvok was in command of the bridge and that Lieutenant Paris and Ensign Kim had gone to sleep, however she herself had chosen to forego her typical regeneration procedure until their slipstream flight was a success.

Seven tapped her comm-badge, contacting Tuvok as she reported her readings. To which the Lieutenant Commander responded by saying he would lead a security team to check on Fran.

Satisfied, she continued her work with her sensor readings, trying to detect Fran, while at the same time checking ensign Kim's calculations with Borg algorithms.

Fran, meanwhile, had gained entrance into Chakotay's quarters, using the captain's security clearance code.

She went into his room and watched him sleeping. The slow rise and fall of his broad chest.

She walked to him and reached down, stroking along his tribal tattoo near his left temple.

Chakotay awoke, realizing someone was standing over him, but before he could call "lights!" he felt a delicate touch to his lips. "Shhh…" came the voice. Was this just a dream? It had to be, after all, Kathryn was in a coma right now. He smiled as she sat down and leaned down, pressing her lips to his. _Janeway_ smiled back in the dim light, whispering to Chakotay.

"Chakotay...please...I've been lonely, and so have you, let us be together tonight…" and she began to kiss at his neck, prompting him to pull her against him. How could this be a dream though, he wondered, it sure felt very real. Thanks to the technology he used to enter his vision quests, he rightly knew the difference, which meant that Kathryn was…

"Kathryn...I know he moved on...but what would Mike think if he was still waiting for you…"

Fran paused her kissing, her hands resting on either side of Chakotay's head. Damn, she thought, during her brief tussle with Janeway, she had just managed to push her fingers into her head for a moment before the two men had time to recover, and so her assimilated memories only went so far. She took a chance, as she replied, "I don't think Mike would even need to know…"

Chakotay sat up, taking _Kathryn's_ wrists in his hands. "Nice try, Fran."

She sighed and her form turned silvery before she returned to her original look. "Can't blame a girl for trying."

Seven's console beeped as she detected that same metallic reading as before in Chakotay's quarters. Seven wasted no time, turning and she ran out of the lab, tapping her comm-badge as she sprinted, moving remarkably well in her heeled shoes. "Seven of Nine to commander Tuvok." _Tuvok here. _ "I have detected Fran, she is with commander Chakotay, I am proceeding to her location as once." _Acknowledged, we have also just discovered crewmember Anderson unconscious and the Doctor has been notified, we will proceed to Chakotay's quarters with haste._

Fran stood, wiping some loose strands of her hair from her eyes and she stepped back as Chakotay stood. "So, it's obvious there were some things we didn't know, but now we do. I know you have a sort of...crush, on me, but even so, you impersonated the Captain and you're the one who put her in sickbay in the first place! I'm sorry, but I just can't trust you, now, before-"

She raised a hand to stop him so she could speak, "Chakotay, I'm sorry again for everything, I know at this point I sound like a broken record." She paused, looking off. Why did she know these human sayings? She shook her head briefly as she spoke again.

"I can heal captain Janeway right now...please, really I can and if I do…" she looked out at the stars. "If I do, can I stay here with you, please, won't that start to make it right? I don't want to hurt anyone, I just want to stay with you!"

She had clasped his hands in hers and he winced and tugged his hands out of hers. She was just so very strong. "Well, it looks like I need to go back to sickbay again now anyway…." he sighed and got dressed in his uniform, and as he was dressing, he heard the chirp of his door. "Come!"

Tuvok, Seven and two security personnel stood there, their eyes going to Fran who stood just behind Chakotay.

The Commander spread his arms, palms upturned and he explained what happened and Fran's now apparent power to shapeshift in addition to her power to pass through solid matter.

She bowed her head apologetically and they all went out and walked along to the starboard turbolift after she talked about her plan to heal the Captain. Tuvok and Seven, both armed with phasers walked behind Fran while the two security crewmen, Mr. Kettle and Mr. Thomas walked in front of her, with Chakotay leading the way.

Soon they entered sickbay, finding the Doctor was waking up crewman Anderson with a stimulant hypospray.

"Commanders. Seven. Crewmen." he acknowledged them with a nod as Mr. Anderson sat up and rubbed his forehead and winced. "What the hell happened...I remember entering the brig for...the night shift and…" the crewman looked at the others and blinked without recognition whatsoever at Fran. "You've had a mild disruption to your frontal lobes and several electrical impulses in your memory centers were disrupted, in short, Fran over there did something to make you forget her escape."

Fran narrowed her eyes at the Doctor. "It wasn't a bad touch...I'm really sorry, Anderson, but you'll feel better after you sleep!" she said as the Doctor took on his own look of annoyance.

"I'll be the one to make that determination, thank you, miss." he turned and discreetly said "you'll feel better after you sleep, return to your quarters…" and Mr. Anderson nodded, edging off the bed as Tuvok ordered Mr. Thomas to escort Mr. Anderson to his quarters. As they left, Fran smiled to herself. _There goes Thomas Anderson...heh._

The Doctor approached them and eyed Fran, flashing a smile at Seven, as he asked why they were here. Chakotay explained about Fran impersonating the Captain and her intention now to heal her.

"Pardon me commander, but are you insane? This is outrageous, first this Replicator shows up, then she attacks Captain Janeway, next she escapes the brig by impersonating her and breaks into your quarters and tries to seduce you and *now* you want her to heal the Captain? I'm sorry, but as chief medical officer, I can't allow an invasive and unknown medical procedure."

"Doctor," said Seven of Nine, "I want to remind you that once...it was such an invasive and unknown method performed by Kes that saved me...when I was dying from the implant attached to my trochlear nerve and she saved me."

Seven turned and regarded Fran. "This woman is not unlike me...there are machines in me that keep me alive. You are also a machine in a sense that keeps me alive...but not only this, you have helped me _live,_ Doctor. You and Janeway have been instrumental in helping me recover my humanity. I feel a sort of kinship with Fran and if we don't let her do this we are denying the Captain the chance to witness our slipstream voyage as well as limiting our trust in Fran. Chakotay is right...on our way here he told me something when I asked him why we should trust her. He said…" She and Chakotay spoke the next few words in unison.

"Trust has to start somewhere."

The Doctor tilted his head, a look of defeat and acceptance coming over his face.

"Very well, but let it be noted I advised against this."

Fran smiled and she and Tuvok and Seven entered the surgical bay. The Doctor monitored Kathryn from the main sickbay console while Tuvok and Seven stayed behind Fran on Janeway's right, Chakotay on her left.

Fran lifted her right hand, cautioning them that this may appear disturbing. She pushed her hand inside Kathryn Janeway's forehead, a strange sound emitting from the point of contact and Fran closed her eyes.

Moments later, she opened her eyes...and Captain Janeway did the same after Fran withdrew her fingers from her head.

Captain Janeway winced, looking over at Chakotay, who took her left hand in his own.

"Welcome back, Kathryn."

Janeway's face twisted in fear as she sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed as she pushed away. "Stay away from me, Chakotay! Stay back!" she looked frantic, not at all like she should have been and she grabbed Tuvok's phaser from his holster and pointed it at Chakotay.

"You choked me!"

She looked at Tuvok. "You were there, you saw, Chakotay started to choke me and Fran rushed at him…."

Fran quickly lunged to the middle of sickbay, grabbing Mr. Kettle's phaser out of his hand and she turned fast, knocking the crewman to the floor, pointing her phaser...and Seven met hers with her own.

"Stand down, Fran." Seven set her phaser to maximum stun. The Doctor was busy tapping commands into the console and he soon turned and raised his hands, just like he had when they first met a few hours ago.

"Fran...lower your phaser, please, I'm sure we can fix all of this…"

Fran shook her head. "I know you people...you won't trust me, I can tell. I hate this ship!" she yelled, leering over at Janeway who kept her own phaser trained on Chakotay.

Chakotay looked at Kathryn and then at Fran, confused, scared, hurt. How did she do this, *why* would she do this, changing Kathryn's memories like this...damn her.

Fran narrowed her eyes at the Doctor. "I've seen how you look at Seven of Nine...I know a great deal about you both, thanks to your Captain over there. You all want to keep me from Chakotay, to keep me from making him happy...why can't I just be with him!?" Fran gritted her teeth, her eyes burning with her tears. "I didn't ask to be made to end! I thought I knew my purpose, but I want to live! I'm not going to die for anyone! Chakotay...she can't make you happy, I can...I can!" Fran waved her phaser erratically. Seven fired. The phaser beam slammed into Fran's chest and she stumbled back, her clothing turning silvery as the energy disrupted her nanite bonds, but only superficially.

"Arhhh!" she screamed, going down on one knee, her left arm across the console which held some hyposprays...and above which was the Doctor's primary sickbay holo-matrix. She stood, her hair in her face and she lunged at Seven, sending her flying back into Tuvok, who in turn slammed into the Captain. The Doctor, although programmed to do no harm, tried to restrain the Replicator. She twisted in his arms, the hologram having adapted to solid form.

"If I can't have him….you can't have *him!* she raged, losing it as she flung the Doctor through the glass partition of his office and he landed with a grunt, not of pain, but merely as one programmed with real world reactions to impact should he be in a solid state.

As the glass shattered, he stood as fast as he could and so did Seven, who lunged at Fran, pushing her as hard as she could. Fran fell back again, turning as she fired...and blew out the Doctor's holo-matrix. He had just enough time to lock eyes and say her name, "Seven!" ...before he fizzled and disappeared.

Chakotay tried to rush at Fran, but she quickly recovered and pointed her phaser at Chakotay, stopping him in his tracks. "I'll do it...I'll make you happy, you'll see...you'll all see!" Fran's chest "wound" closed, appearing as normal as she repaired herself. She backed out of sickbay, keeping her phaser pointed at them all until the doors hissed shut. Tuvok attended to the captain, attempting a mind-meld to undo Fran's handy work. A subtle increase of his already always creased brow betrayed his mental chiding of himself. No pun had been intended.

Seven sunk to her knees, her human hand bleeding as she cut herself on the glass. She stared at the sparking hole in the wall. "Doctor….Doctor?" she whispered. She could not believe it, it was a virtual impossibility. He wasn't gone, he couldn't be gone! She stared at the cut on her hand, her eyes tearing up. This pain...the Doctor could heal her hand. She turned and stare up at Chakotay.

"The Doctor…." Seven said as tears fell from her eyes.


	6. Chapter 6: Take the Third Path

Fran ran, wiping her eyes, she was so confused. Why did she exist here in this place. Why did she feel pain and emotions and sensations like a real person. She stopped and pulled open a Jeffery's Tube hatch, crawling into it and she pulled the hatch shut and kept going. She was a real person, wasn't she? Whoever or _whatever_ had brought her here had obviously made her capable of experiencing these feelings. She was scared, she did not want...not to be.

She stopped and leaned against the ladder leading to other decks of the ship, her thoughts troubled as she considered what she wanted to do now. Many of the ship's crew were asleep, the vessel largely operating in a semi-independent mode monitored by the main computer. The main computer...yes that's it, if she wanted to enact her plan, she would need to know more about this ship. She knew where she needed to go.

Meanwhile, Tuvok had helped Captain Janeway back up onto the main bed in sickbay, having tried to reform her memories via a mind meld, however she was now unconscious, as he had induced sleep to help her recover. It was all he could do, and the logical thing now would be to lead a shipwide security sweep.

Chakotay helped Seven of Nine to stand, his face awash in sorrow. She pulled away, going to the office panel, tapping the controls as she wiped her eyes. "Computer, is the EMH program intact?" The computer spoke with it's calm female tone as it replied. _Negative, the EMH program is irrecoverable._

Seven tapped the panel's controls furiously, again and again, her tapping becoming her fists slamming the plasticized glass. Chakotay had conferred with Tuvok in the meantime, agreeing with him that Fran needed to be found as soon as possible. He left to carry out his plan, and Chakotay returned to Seven, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Seven….Seven…?" she either didn't hear him or chose not to, her legs giving away as she fell back onto the Doctor's office chair.

Chakotay rubbed her shoulder, trying to reassure his crewmate and friend. "There must be a way to get him back, we back up everything, right? Please Seven, can I at least treat your hand?" she said nothing, but she turned and rested her right hand on the desk, staring at nothing. Chakotay left and returned with a dermal regenerator, using it to heal the cut. "I'm going to stay with Kath-with the Captain, can you go back to Astrometrics and see if you can find Fran? I don't think it's a good idea to leave her roaming the ship tonight, especially with what's going to happen tomorrow."

Seven stood, wiping the last of her tears, a buzzing feeling in her head, but she dismissed it as she nodded, and with a final look at the sleeping Captain, she left sickbay.

Tom Paris yawned and stretched, sleeping in and out as he sometimes did, especially the night before would could be their most important mission ever. He rolled over, coming face to face with an unfamiliar woman. "Who the hell-" but is words turned into a pained wince as he shut his eyes. _The hell...is she sticking her fingers in my head?_ He tried to grab her wrist, but his whole body tingled, that pins and needles feeling and he merely lay there, hoping this was just some bizarre nightmare. Fran frowned, withdrawing her fingers. Again it was her incomplete hasty mining of Janeway's mind which had led her to Mr. Paris' quarters. Damn it, she should have taken the time to mine her mind when she had been in sickbay!

She left Tom's quarters the same way she had entered, through the jeffery's tube hatch in the washroom. At least she now gained a better understanding of who the real mastermind behind their mission was. She headed along through the ship's maintenance tube network towards ensign Harry Kim's quarters. She found it rather funny how, although these humans and this vessel were by and large technologically superior to that of 21st century earth they were easily fooled. Without all their technology they acquired through their Stargate program in her reality they would have remained unremarkable and easy for the more advanced powers of both Galaxies to enslave or destroy them.

Seven stood at the main console in Astrometrics, trying to focus on her task. She wanted to find the Replicator as much as anyone who knew how dangerous she was, maybe now even more so. Her chest felt tight as she continued to grieve for the loss of the Doctor. To many of the crew, maybe he was just a program. To the Borg, the crew would themselves be considered raw material, their biological and technological distinctiveness to be added to their own. In her time she had been on Voyager, coupled with her assimilated knowledge, she had become well aware of just how frighteningly irrational and destructive many species could be to themselves, their planets and those they contacted. In some strange twisted way, the Borg's drive for perfection was a cure for many of these species' imperfections. They were no longer individuals. There was no one lusting for power, no inequality, no selfishness, just the Collective.

Her darker thoughts broke as she remembered how earlier she had been able to detect Fran only because she had turned silvery as she had shapeshifted. She quickly checked the sensor logs for sickbay, finding that the Astrometric sensors had detected Fran at the moment Seven had fired and wounded her. _So...there is a way to detect her._ Although she quickly surmised that the only way to do so would be to wound her or make her shape shift again. Seven, clenched her borg hand in anger. She looked forward to wounding Fran...a lot.

The Doctor had not been just a program, a hologram to her. Though she maintained her cool facade, thanks to her ingrained emotionless drone behaviour for 18 years, the truth was, given how she was assimilated and traumatized by the Borg, deep down she was just as scared as she was when she had been six, watching her parents futility fight the drones that had transported aboard their crashed ship _The Raven._ She wanted to live, to reclaim the many years the Borg took from her. Part of that was forming relationships. Kathryn Janeway was almost as a mother, Chakotay was as a father, Harry Kim, Tom Paris, Neelix and even Tuvok were as brothers or uncles. B'Lanna Torres was like the feisty slightly older sister.

The Doctor had been… Seven blinked hard as she worked the controls, mapping out a search grid throughout the ship and likely targets Fran might attack. She took up her phaser and left to find and work with Tuvok, eager to share her findings. She stopped in the doorway of the lab and turned as her console chirped. It was almost 2 AM now and although she was half Borg, a part of her felt human fatigue. She returned and read new data about the events in sickbay. As she read the information in mere seconds, her eyes widened.

The Doctor had been in the midst of transferring his program to holodeck 2, part of it remaining in sickbay only so he could attempt to stop Fran. It seemed this partial and incomplete transfer had been disrupted when Fran destroyed his holo-matrix interface, and now as she turned and hurried out the door, she was deeply conflicted. On one hand, she wanted badly to go see if he was there, on the other the critical information she needed to tell Tuvok should take precedence.

She turned and headed to Tuvok's last known location, according to the computer, after all _the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one_. It would not be wise to risk contacting him over the comm system, as Fran had proven herself very crafty and she may have found a way to tap it in her mind at will, after all Seven could never lose sight of the fact that Fran was a machine. _...and machines can be broken…._

Fran meanwhile had managed to make it to ensign Kim's quarters, watching him sleep. Though she could easily take the information she wanted, she changed her mind, deciding to have a little fun this time. She sat on the side of his bed, gently tapping him to wake up.

Harry blinked and he sat up, calling out "lights!" and he saw a girl sitting there, smiling at him.

"Hello," said Fran as her smile turned into a smirk.


	7. Chapter 7: It's the final countdown!

Harry went stiff, this must be the intruder who hurt the Captain, the Replicator.

Fran smiled and leaned in, kissing Harry in his lips and he recoiled. "Whoa whoa, hold on, stop!" He tried to push her away and she barely moved, it was like pushing a bulkhead. "Kim to-" he said, tapping his sleep shirt but of course his comm-badge was on his night table, he mentally admonished himself, trying to lean over and reach for it, but Fran was faster as she swatted it so hard it flew across the room.

"Harry Kim, the Operations Officer of this ship...it's nice to meet you...look, I healed your Captain, I was just jealous you know? Seeing her kissing Chakotay and I just-"

Harry blinked and frowned. Fran narrowed her eyes in a *he's so cute when he does that* face.

"The Captain and Chakotay...have a thing?" he asked incredulously. Fran couldn't help it, she laughed. She shook her head in an amused manner, lamenting how funny it was that on a ship this size so much could escape their notice. "Yes, and you know, I can see why Janeway loves your Commander…" she said in a low voice, trailing her fingers down Harry's shirt.

"Yes well, look, I just….part of the team, ya know?" he said as he pulled his blanket up as if to shield himself. Fran smiled again, yanking it clear away and she crawled at him, a seductive look in her eyes. "You're an attractive, intelligent young man...you deserve to be promoted...your Captain may not yet see just how valuable you are, but maybe you're hoping to earn that promotion tomorrow when you all show up at Earth's doorstep? No...I can see it in your eyes, you still hope to see your family and...someone else." Fran paused.

"Her name's Libby...she's my girlfriend, so yes I may pursue other relationships, but I've never done it, that way. We once made contact with home and I was able to read a letter she sent me along with my folks. She knows how I am, who I am and nothing can make me break her trust…" Harry gently moved Fran's hand away from him. "Nothing."

Fran sat there, her face flat as she took in his words. He was right, right to be faithful, he chose his path on this ship. "You know what else, Fran…" Harry went on, "even if something happens tomorrow and there's a great risk...we're all prepared to take that risk. We all know that maybe it's not the destination that matters, maybe it's the journey, and if that journey fails tomorrow and we take longer to get home, I can't think of any place I'd rather be, or any people, I'd rather be with."

"To the journey." Fran turned, hearing Tom's voice and he stood there along with Seven and Tuvok, all three of them aiming their phasers at her. _Shit._

Fran raised her hands in surrender. She turned to Kim as she stood, smiling at him again as she walked slowly towards the trio. "You're right, Harry Kim...it's the journey that matters…"

Soon they had departed, Tom wishing Harry a good night and telling him to get some sleep, he didn't want to listen to him yawning every 5 seconds in the _Delta Flyer_. Harry nodded and laughed as he lay back down, glad that Fran was back in custody and Tuvok had confirmed the Captain would be alright in the morning as well.

Tom then left them and retired to bed, heading back to his own quarters, and Tuvok dismissed his security detail as well, only he and Seven of Nine now accompanying the Replicator to the brig yet again.

"I don't understand, how did you find me?" she asked, walking at a leisurely pace just in front of them, to which Tuvok responded. "You entered Mr. Paris' quarters, attempting to glean information from him and he quickly managed to regain consciousness and alerted us. It was logical to assume that you would then attempt to acquire knowledge from ensign Kim, the only other senior bridge officer not fully aware of your capabilities, yet knowledgeable enough to gain you access to the plans of this vessel."

Fran chuckled. She was enjoying these human feelings, the more pleasant ones, at any rate. "Very good Tuvok, no wonder Captain Janeway trusts you implicitly."

They soon arrived at the brig and Tuvok left Seven to guard her, knowing that he too needed rest and he retired to his quarters, after inquiring from the computer and learning Chakotay was sleeping in sickbay, keeping company with the Captain.

Fran stood watching Seven, and Seven stood watching Fran. "I know, after everything I've done, I'm a prisoner here until you all return to the Alpha Quadrant."

Seven merely nodded in that curt way she was known for, not speaking.

Fran neared the force field, her face inches from it as she stared into Seven's eyes. "I'm sorry for what I did to your Doctor. I really am. There's an aggression that was programmed into us by our creators, and *my* creator, Dr. McKay made me so I was not like that, he suppressed that programming, but whatever brought me here undid it. I feel feelings, sensations...pain, yet I'm still a Replicator. I can change my form, I can pass through solid matter, I am five times stronger than anyone on this ship, and I can assimilate information from and manipulate biological and technological entities. Clearly, as you might expect, my abilities give me a sort of superiority complex. I never wanted to hurt anyone on this ship, but I did, and I destroyed your hologram.

Harry Kim's words reached me though...he talked about the journey you are all on and that it's that which matters. The way he talked made you all seem like a family of your own. Although I knew I was destined to...end, I still observed, I still learned, during my brief existence in the reality I came from. Dr. McKay and his team were close, they were like family, I see that now. I know I am a woman, but I also know I'm a technological machine and I can't ever have children of my own. Still, that doesn't mean I don't have desires...and when I saw Chakotay, I knew I was drawn to him. It's clear though, he loves your Captain. Just as it's clear you love your Doctor. Like Harry Kim and his love for his very distant girlfriend."

Seven wiped at her eyes with her right fingers, her left borg hand had been clenched into a fist in anger, which had since unfurled. "The Doctor may be...alive. I can't go check because I wish to guard you, I must understand you. I can only speak with you, I cannot insert my assimilation tubules and simply take what I want. I am Borg, but I am also human, so human speech will have to do. I'm still mad, but in allowing me to understand you, maybe we're not so different after all. Earlier I defended you to the Doctor and he thus placed his trust in you, as did we all.

You betrayed that trust a second time, and now...I do feel a kinship with you. We are both of us still relatively new to truly living, to individuality. I have abilities that grant me an edge amongst the crew, as you have. My nanoprobes resonate with your nanites. We both have trouble expressing our emotions, me because of my assimilation, you because you didn't really have them as heightened as you do now. I also know that I should not judge, because I have committed far greater crimes. The thousands of lives I destroyed...you hurt my friends, but I helped to destroy entire civilizations."

Fran nodded as she spoke now, "My Replicator brethren did the same across the Pegasus Galaxy...destroying populations of planets in their war with the Wraith...long story. I may not have memories from them, from their Replicator Collective, but I still feel a deep shame for what they wrought upon millions. I guess that's another thing we share…."

They both stood, no longer feeling like talking for now. Thus they stood, staring...until it was morning.

_Sickbay, 4 hours later:_

Crewman Kettle had since recovered from being knocked out and had been dismissed to his quarters by Commander Chakotay, who reassured him that the Captain was going to be alright.

Chakotay awoke as Kathryn stroked his cheek, sad for her actions last night, but knowing he would forgive her and understand. "Kathryn! How are you feeling are you...okay?" he asked as she took a step back while he sat up. She nodded and turned to see the shattered window of the Doctor's office, but Chakotay had seen fit to at least clean up the glass from the carpeted deck.

"I'm sorry for what happened yesterday, but I'm okay now and we have a slipstream flight to attempt, don't we?" she asked with a smile. Chakotay nodded and hugged her. Protocol be damned, it was just the two of them right then anyway. Speaking of which…

"Where's Fran? Where's the Doctor?" Janeway wondered, looking around.

Chakotay tapped his comm-badge, trying to press the wrinkles out of his slept-in uniform. "Chakotay to Tuvok…" _Tuvok here, good morning, Commander. Is the Captain recovered?_

He held her left hand in his right as they smiled at each other before he replied, "Yes Tuvok, thanks to you, and where's Fran, did you find her?" _Yes sir, she is in the brig and Seven of Nine wanted to guard her all night, she had said she did not need to regenerate. Mr. Neelix has organized a breakfast event in the mess hall for the entire crew and I am enroute to meet Mr. Paris and Mr. Kim to review their plan._

Chakotay stood up off the biobed, leading the captain slowly towards the Doctor's office, his body shielding her from the destruction of the wall panel from last night. "Very good Tuvok, me and the Captain will be there soon as well, Chakotay out," he said as he tapped his badge, closing the connection.

"Chakotay, why are you standing in such an odd way...what happened….Chakotay?" she asked, stopping. He knew it wouldn't be right to keep her from the truth. "Last night, Fran as you know healed you but then she seemed to go crazy and she...destroyed the Doctor's program."

Captain Janeway wobbled a bit, steadying herself against the bulkhead of the corridor, having left sickbay with Chakotay.

She said nothing, going to the nearest comm-panel and she keyed it for shipwide communication.

"Attention all hands, this is the Captain. The Doctor is….offline. The Replicator is confined to the brig and our slipstream flight will commence in one hour as was scheduled. The Doctor believed in this crew, and we still believe in each other. We can do this today. Everyone please, attend to your posts after you have partaken in Mr. Neelix's breakfast event. This crew has performed with distinction and valor, and I know our luck will not run out, not today….Janeway out."

Chakotay, I think it would be best if you went to relieve Seven of Nine. You better than anyone have the chance to keep Fran where she is, and Seven is needed on the bridge when we attempt the flight to input Harry's phase corrections." Chakotay nodded as he replied, "Yes...but breakfast first." She nodded and smiled as they headed off to the mess hall.

Meanwhile, Seven had freed Fran, using Borg algorithms to disable the internal sensors. They escaped through the Jeffery's Tube network, bypassing the crew who would have spotted them in the corridors.

Fran convinced Seven that she could fix the Doctor, and they were on their way to sickbay to first retrieve his mobile emitter. Fran was intrigued at how these humans had found a way to intricately align force fields so they could take on a myriad of shapes and functions in their holographic state. As they crawled along together, they exchanged knowledge, bonding, like sisters.

_The Mess Hall 07:45 hours:_

It had been some time, the Captain, Chakotay, B'Lanna, Tom, Tuvok and Harry had convened as they ate, refining the plan at long last and they were prepared.

Torres stopped Tom outside the mess hall, the two of them stopping to thank Neelix, who smiled and wished them all good luck. She hugged him and he hugged her back. "You be careful out there, ok fly boy?" "What, and mess the chance to get bitten by you at the end of the day when we're on Earth?" Tom smiled and she did too and they leaned in and kissed deeply.

As they parted, Tom said, "I hope the Doc will be ok, and maybe when we get back you can recover his program." She nodded, folding her arms in front of herself. "I used to think he was just a program...that we just gave him personality subroutines, which I'd hardly call a soul. The Doctor risked himself that day when he rescued me from those militants when we time traveled to twentieth century Earth. The many times he risked himself to save the whole ship. We both have given him a hard time, but I think he deserves to be seen as a person, don't you, Tom?"

He nodded, missing the Doc. "If we can find him, I'll start treating him with the respect he deserves. He's our friend...he's our family." With that, they parted ways. Torres went off to oversee things in engineering and Paris went to the shuttlebay to ready the _Flyer_.

Harry had gone to retrieve his PADD containing his calculations and Tuvok accompanied the Captain to the bridge. Chakotay made his way to the brig, and when he got there, Seven and Fran were gone. Quickly he asked the computer to locate Seven of Nine, but the computer replied _unable to comply, internal sensors are offline._ "Not again, damn it, Seven." he muttered as he tapped his comm-badge and hailed Kathryn. "Chakotay to the Captain, Seven and Fran are gone and internal sensors are offline." _Acknowledged Chakotay, we'll have to track them. _Next her voice was broadcast shipwide. _Attention all hands, we are ten minutes away from our slipstream flight, but the Replicator and Seven of Nine have gone rogue. All personnel are to remain at their posts, but are authorized to set their phasers to stun. Bridge out._

Chakotay left the brig and hurried to sickbay, if they were going to go anywhere that would be one of the places. He quickly arrived and waited, taking the Doctor's mobile emitter in his left hand as his right held his phaser.

Moments later, Seven and Fran crawled out of the Jeffery's Tube hatch, walking to the Doctor's office to get his emitter.

"That's far enough…" Chakotay said, having crouched behind biobed #3. He now stood, leveling his phaser at them.

Fran and Seven exchanged looks as they slowly raised their hands.


	8. Chapter 8: New Day New Doc!

Chakotay kept his distance, holding up the emitter. "This is what you came for, right? I want an explanation, Seven, why are you helping her? She's dangerous, we've all seen it, she assaulted and took the form of the Captain, she destroyed the Doctor, so what the hell?"

Fran started to explain, but Chakotay lifted his phaser higher, aiming directly at her, making it clear of his mistrust. Fran stopped, feeling hurt. Why couldn't he understand?

Seven spoke, keeping still. "Fran has feelings for you, Commander, although we both know that already. She acted out of jealousy. She's new to life...as I am still new to it. The Doctor isn't gone, but his program was damaged, we were on our way to holodeck two after we secured his mobile emitter. Fran has explained that she can bring him back. Fran lost her place where she came from and it's clear she will never be able to go back. She lost her friends...her collective. Voyager *is* my collective. It is incomplete though and that's all I want...and Fran can help me and she can help us. Do you not remember what you told me last night. _Trust has to start somewhere_."

Chakotay sighed, lowering his phaser. "You're right Seven. It does...but let me remind you also, when you came aboard, it wasn't easy to trust you, in fact I didn't, but it was because you were a Borg, you were only doing what the Collective made you do, but now you're doing something as an individual. As you once said, we're conflicted, and I see that now, more clearly than I ever have. You're not just putting yourself and the Doctor at risk, you're risking this entire crew. We're about to go into slipstream and we need you to input Harry's phase corrections as only you can, so please...let's-"

Fran rushed, Chakotay, moving very fast and she flung him over the bed and he grunted from the impact, losing his grip on the mobile emitter, but not his phaser. Fran grabbed it and tossed it to Seven, yelling at her to get to holodeck two. She restrained Chakotay after he stood, just as Seven said, "computer initiate site-to-site transport to holodeck two!" and as she disappeared in a blue pulse and swirling sparkle, Chakotay stopped his futile struggle against the biobed. "Damn it, Fran, why!?" he asked, staring into her eyes.

"I…" she let him go, stepping away. "I did it for love...okay that's sappy, but not ours because it's clear you may never trust me, this makes that even harder, and I'm sorry again for hurting you. I did it for the love Seven of Nine has for your Doctor. I also did it in the hopes that if I restore him, you will hear me out better. Please Chakotay, you respected the Doctor, he's your friend right, don't you want him back too? What if Kathryn gets hurt during this slipstream flight somehow, don't you want her under his care if that happens? I did it for you...I want him back so she'll be cared for if something happens because you love *her* don't you?"

Chakotay nodded, putting his phaser away and he gestured. "Alright Fran...let's go, but I'm keeping my eye on you." She started off as they left sickbay, heading for the port turbolift. "You're not going to tell your Captain?" "Let's just say, you're not the only one who has rebelled in the past…" Fran blinked at his words, not quite understanding. He continued, "I was a freedom fighter, a member of the _Maquis_. We resisted oppression from the Cardassians, enemies of the Federation." Fran nodded as they rode the turbolift.

Soon they arrived that holodeck two, where Seven was busy attempting to access the Doctor's fractured matrix via the main holodeck console. She worked diligently, her slender yet strong sure hands moving deftly over the controls. "May I?" Fran asked as she walked to stand beside Seven, Chakotay keeping an eye on them.

_Bridge to Chakotay, status? Have you found Fran and Seven?_

Chakotay tapped his comm-badge to reply, "Yes, Captain, but Fran and Seven are with me in holodeck two, and we're attempting to recover the Doctor's program...can we proceed? Fran assured me she has a plan for that and more."

The Captain meanwhile, listened to this as she sat on her chair, her posture tense. "Very well, Chakotay...I may not trust Fran and Seven might be in trouble, but I trust you, with my life. We'll hold off on the slipstream flight for a while yet. If her plan succeeds, let me know, Janeway out."

Tuvok remained stoic at his station, although his eyebrow did arch slightly. Trusting the Captain, even though his decades as a Starfleet officer, longer than she herself had lived, coupled with his vulcan logic, told him this was folly. He had never understood the crew's compulsion to emotionally bond with inanimate objects, certainly their Doctor. Still, the Doctor was a lifeform and he had gained sentience. What ever happened next, he would do as he always had, trust his Captain and protect his fellow crew.

Janeway contacted Mr. Paris and Mr. Kim, advising them of events and they acknowledged, citing that they would work on double and triple checking their work in the meantime. Next, she contacted Lt. Torres, informing her of Chakotay, Seven and Fran's plan. B'Lanna also acknowledged the Captain's advisement, ordering her staff to do more safety checks on the Quantum Slipstream Drive. Captain Janeway sat back, trying her best to relax, after all, Chakotay was an experienced Commander, he knew what he was doing...most of the time. She couldn't help but remember their time in Borg Space when he'd countermanded her standing orders, still… _I hope you know what you're doing, again, Chakotay…._ She thought.

Meanwhile, Fran was busy. Seven asked how she might stabilize the Doctor's incomplete program, which she could see had degraded overnight was was continuing to do so. "Don't worry, Seven, I have my ways…" Fran said as she smiled, pushing her right hand directly into the console. An industrial replicator, the kind used to create larger complex objects, shimmered into being on the floor of the holodeck. Next, a strange looking narrow table appeared as the replicator was programmed to synthesize it. The big replicator shimmered and vanished, but the table remained. "I know your holograms could have done just as well, but in this case I needed something that wouldn't disappear if there was a disruption, don't worry, you'll be happy with the results….I hope."

"Computer, initiate transfer of the Doctor's program to replicator creation unit 01." _Transfer complete,_ came the crisp female tone after a series of confirming beeps. "Replicator creation unit?" questioned Chakotay, but it came too late.

A silvery liquid-looking substance arose from the table, condensing into solid form and the Doctor's form rippled into existence. He sat up quickly, pressing his hands to himself. "What happened to me? I feel...substantial...I...Commander?" he looked puzzled, staring over at Chakotay.

Chakotay was at a loss for words, even as Seven rushed to the Doctor, throwing her arms around him. She didn't care what he was made of, photons and force fields, flesh and blood, nanites...he was back. For his part, the Doctor reflexively hugged her back gently. "Oh hello!" he said with a smile. She held him for a moment, before pulling back and wiping at her eyes. "I thought I'd lost you…" she said quietly.

Fran came around the console to stand next to a smiling and relieved Chakotay as the Doctor got off the machine and stood in front of them now. Seven and Chakotay were puzzled though, if this was her plan, why did she need the mobile emitter?

Looking directly at Seven, the Doctor asked:

"I thought I was lost too...um, I'm sorry, but...who are you?"


	9. Chapter 9: Wham Bam Thank You Fran!

Fran glanced at Chakotay, seeing him frowning and she spoke up. "We knew this was a strong possibility...but there may be a way to help your Doctor. Still, there's a reason I wanted this," she continued, holding up the Doctor's mobile emitter...which he no longer needed.

She walked back to the control console, once more inputting data directly into it with her hand, her other one grasping the emitter. There was a series of confirming beeps from the computer as she intoned _data transfer complete._

Fran smiled and said, "come on Chakotay, it's time for me to strengthen your trust and that of your crew." With that she turned and started for the door. "Hey hold on, what about Seven and the Doctor?" he asked, looking back at them. Seven was holding the Doctor's new solid hands, which felt every bit as real as his previous holographic ones had as she talked to him in a quiet private tone, her eyes wet with tears that she wouldn't let fall. "They'll be fine, and besides, it will take awhile for me to work on his memories, but only if your crewmates let me proceed later. Now please, let's go."

Chakotay nodded, going to Seven of Nine and he rested a hand on her shoulder in a gesture of comfort. "Fran and I are heading off, but stay with him, he needs you. It's good to have you back, Doctor." The Doctor smiled, nodding at the Commander. "Thank you, Chakotay, but it's obvious there was very large gaps in my memory...like where's Kes?" Chakotay just rested his hand on the Doctor's shoulder as he had with Seven, reassuring him that they'd be back to help him after Fran helped Voyager. The Doctor nodded, turning to the Borg woman. "Looks like you'll have to fill me in...Seven of Nine."

Seven nodded, wiping at her eyes as she instructed the computer to project a simple couch for them to sit on. Fran and Chakotay left them in peace, and Chakotay knew he need to inform the Captain of this remarkable recovery and change for the Doctor. As the holodeck doors slid shut with their customary hydraulic whir, Chakotay tapped his comm-badge as he and Fran walked side by side. "Chakotay to the Captain." _Yes, Commander? _"Fran is leading me to Engineering, and I think she has some sort of plan, you should meet with us there." _Acknowledged, Chakotay, Janeway out._

Fran meanwhile had seen fit to hold Chakotay's hand in hers as they walked along, her smile bright and optimistic. Chakotay went along with it, if only to appease the Replicator so she would not go crazy again. He would never forget just how powerful and dangerous she was.

Meanwhile, on the Bridge, Captain Janeway stood, telling Tuvok he had the bridge. However, Tuvok being Tuvok, stood partially blocking her way to the main turbolift. "Captain, while I remain unconvinced of our...guest's intentions, at one time I was as skeptical of Commander Chakotay. He has proven himself to be a capable and trusted friend, and given time, perhaps Fran could prove so as well. However, given that it has been less than 24 hours and you and the Commander have been inclined to place your trust in this Replicator, it seems illogical to do so given the crimes she has already perpetrated."

Kathryn Janeway smiled, giving Tuvok's hand a squeeze. Much like Chakotay, he had always been a sound voice and an invaluable source of wisdom and counsel over the years. "You're right, Tuvok, but it was an act of compassion for strangers that led Kes to join us after we helped to save the Ocampa. Yes, my decision was short sighted, and I still feel guilty to this day. Still, if an act of compassion stranded us in the Delta Quadrant, maybe one can get us home today."

Tuvok's brow pressed together as it tended to do, betraying his concern despite his vulcan nature, still, his trust in Captain Janeway was without question, and he would follow her even if it met their exile outside of the Galaxy. He stepped aside, letting her pass as he walked to sit in the Captain's chair. She said thank you as the turbolift doors hissed shut.

Some time later, Janeway, Paris, Kim, Torres, Chakotay and even Neelix had gathered in front of the Quantum Slipstream Drive where Fran had asked them all to assemble.

"Thank you all for coming...I said I had a plan and here it is…" she said as she held up the Doctor's mobile emitter. The senior officers looked perplexed as they watched Fran.

"There's a reason we're called Replicators...now please, don't be alarmed...I've never done this before but I think I know how…." Fran said, as she set the emitter on the handrail around the Drive, which until a few days ago had been the Warp Core.

They all watched, Harry and Tom's mouths opening as B'ELanna uncrossed her arms in shock.

Fran's entire body turned silver, cascading with a ripple effect and out of her right side...another Fran grew and separated. "Hello," said Fran 2.

She looked just like the first Fran, and Tom leaned in and said quietly to Harry, "look, now you can date her for sure…" to which Harry eyed Tom in a *dude, what the hell* sort of way.

Fran and Fran 2 both walked to the sides of the Drive, and Fran held up and started pressing the controls of the mobile emitter. "Now for the third...part."

Suddenly, a form shimmered into existence. Fran number 3 smiled at everyone.

Fran, Fran 2 and Fran 3 all turned to the Quantum Slipstream Drive and laid their hands on it.

"Captain, are you sure we should let them do...whatever it is they are trying to do?" asked Neelix, to which B'ELanna also added her concern. "I agree, Captain, I mean remember when we let Seven work around our systems?" Janeway raised a hand in a calming manner. "Your concerns are noted...but Chakotay has something to report...Commander?"

Chakotay cleared his throat, speaking up as the Frans worked to do whatever it was they were doing. "Fran brought back the Doctor...as a Replicator." Everyone gasped at this news. "I know it's a shock to you all, to me too, but on our way here, she had said that only part of him made it through to holodeck two last night, his physical parameters were destroyed in sickbay. She reconstructed him from memory. She said she has a plan to maybe bring back the part of him that was lost, at least somewhat. She said she wanted to do this first though."

With that, they turned and watched the Frans working. There arose a strange pulsing hum from the Quantum Slipstream Drive. A force field snapped into place. "For your crew's protection, Captain," Fran explained. The three Fran's closed their eyes in unison as the pulsing increased.

Outside the _Intrepid_ class starship, a large nebula-like formation appeared, a purple-blue expanding energy...and Voyager sped forward, disappearing into it.

Naomi Wildman looked out the window of her mom's quarters, at the strange blue light passing by the outside of the ship surrounding it. "Ooo, so pretty!" giggled the little girl as she smiled.

_Tuvok to Captain Janeway._ The Captain tapped her comm-badge and responded, "yes Tuvok?"

_Voyager has entered subspace, and sensors are detecting radiation, however, our ship's structural integrity field is deflecting it. That is not the astonishing occurrence though. Voyager is moving at an estimated 7 million times the speed of light. By my calculations, we should arrive in sector 001 in 3 hours._

Everyone had been watching the Captain, listening and they all turned in absolute stunned silence, every single pair of eyes found Fran. The first one opened her eyes and looked at them, finding Chakotay and she smiled at him. Chakotay stared, lost for words. Kathryn and Harry and even B'Elanna teared up as Fran spoke up.

"Told ya!"


	10. Chapter 10: Crap, indeed!

The Doctor smiled at the Borg woman, Seven of Nine tertiary adjunct of unimatrix 01, as he had come to understand. She explained what she knew since coming aboard and the departure of Kes. The Doctor's memory gap seemed to have started just before Seven actually beamed aboard with several of her fellow Borg drones. A most curious timing.

"Seven, I wanted to take the time to say thank you, for sitting with me and taking time to explain things, catching me up on events. I must say that I am truly sorry that I can't remember anything about you or any time since that particular point in _Voyager's_ timeline so far." The Doctor paused, as though staring off into space and he smiled anew.

"I think you'll be happy to know Fran just propelled the ship into hyperspace...and we'll be back at Earth in three hours!"

Seven's eyes widened, her jaw clenching as she stared at him. "How do you know this?" she asked, her unease growing.

"Well, much like the Borg, Replicators can communicate via subspace, although apparently it's a more involved process. I can't hear her unless she wants me to and for the most part, I can only directly sense...impressions, intentions. I'm glad she can't hear me unless I want her to, thank goodness," he said, frowning. Seven nodded, her chest still feeling tight but she tried not to let her feelings show. Why was it now more difficult, and why was there a strange buzzing feeling in her head?

She ignored it again, though a slight wince creased her face, which of course the Doctor picked up on. "Seven, are you alright?" he asked. She stood, saying nothing and he stood as well, reaching up to feel her forehead gently. "According to my touch, your temperature is slightly elevated...computer, medical tricorder."

There was a buzzing as one appeared in his hand and he used it to run a scan on Seven's cranial implants. "Seven, please hold still!" she wobbled as he said this and managed to reply, "I cannot comply…" before she started to collapse. The Doctor quickly caught her with his left arm. "Seven!" he said, worried as he eased her onto the couch, checking his readings. He saw that there was some sort of malfunction with her primary cortical node.

It was shutting down. "No! Seven!" he looked up as he shouted, "computer, emergency, transport us to sickbay!" _Unable to comply, power is being diverted to main engineering._

Fran….

The Doctor stood and carried Seven to the Replicator Machine, only so he could use it as a table since he feared creating any more holograms would tax the ship's systems somehow. He was a Doctor, not an Engineer but he was more than that, he was her friend.

He might not remember her, but he had a strong feeling. Maybe it was because he was far more substantial now, basically human, but just made of a synthetic material instead of a biological one. He had grown by leaps and bounds since he was first activated and here and now he was reborn. He would be damned if he let a little thing like lost memories keep him from doing his duty. He could not remember Seven of Nine, but he remembered studying the Borg corpse with Kes some years ago. He was familiar with Borg technology though not on the same level as Seven. She began seizing up in her unconscious state and he held her hand, trying to maintain his professional demeanor.

What was he to do? He could not risk carrying her to sickbay, there was obviously the fact that time was a critical factor, but he was more than a Doctor now...he was a Replicator.

He phased his left hand into her forehead, his frown deepening. She continued to spasm but he did his best to work quickly. He found her cortical node, and using his nanites, he accessed it and altered it and gradually her seizures stopped. As he worked, his eyes closed, he gasped. Her memories were open to him, he could see them as though he lived her life. He saw her as a child...wearing a red dress as she hid from her aunt Irene in her house on Earth while her parents were away at a conference across the planet. More and more he saw. The memories of Annika Hansen. Her early life. He shook as she experienced her painfully traumatizing assimilation and he felt it, again as though it was he who was being mutilated, violated, dehumanized. He saw her life as a drone, the sickening acts she was forced to do. Meanwhile, the voice of herself...the scared little girl, always calling out for her mama and papa. He saw when she met Captain Janeway and Tuvok on the Borg cube. Her conflicting nature when she was liberated. She had given up, she had accepted that she would always be Borg, yet here was this woman telling her that one voice could be stronger than a thousand voices. He saw himself through her eyes. He felt how she watched him, admiring his efficiency, his comradery with the crew. She grew to respect him quickly, to like him. She could see he was an outsider, treated differently, as she was. He was alone, a single thinking feeling hologram on a ship of over 140 organic beings. She had felt a kinship. She was also alone, seen as Borg, treated with apprehension perhaps. He saw the night before last...when she had been impaired for the first time in her life. Her feelings surfaced, let loose as they were by her one drink. He saw everything, he felt her feelings. No...they were his feelings too. The kiss they had shared, their social lessons. He remembered because she remembered.

He opened his eyes. He understood her, fully. He understood her sadness when he was thought destroyed. He understood why her grief was making her cortical node shut down. It was a Borg failsafe designed to keep drones from showing strong emotions and signs of regaining their individuality. _Damn the Borg_ he thought, continuing his work as he interfaced with her implants. He reprogrammed it, altering the circuitry, easy enough. He strengthened it, ensuring it would remain fully functional for many years to come. Satisfied, he carefully withdrew his fingers and smiled, using the medical tricorder to take more readings and ensure that she was stable.

As in his previous state as a hologram, he did not require food or rest, so he stayed with her. His own memories were still fragmented, augmented though they had been with Seven's retelling of the various events from her point of view as well as her memories he had witnessed.

He asked the computer to delete the tricorder as well as the couch and the computer did so after a confirming chirp.

He made his decision. Gently picking her up in his arms, he proceeded out of holodeck 2 and headed to cargo bay 2. Passing some of the crew, they nodded, all of them in optimistic spirits.

The Captain had announced what Fran had done a short while ago, which explained everyone's happy mood.

_Engineering….15 minutes earlier…._

Fran let her hands drop from the casing of the quantum slipstream drive, which she and her "sisters" had reconfigured into a hyperdrive, apparently.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you all of my plan, but I figured to make it a surprise...and besides, I know the risk I'm taking, again hoping you will all trust me to take you home." She paused, nearing the force field she had erected and she stopped and smiled as she continued to speak, addressing everyone but her eyes never left Chakotay.

"This massive undertaking by mixing my reality's technology with yours is entirely new, and so I am not sure if there are unforeseen risk factors to your crew, like radiation, which is why I put up this forcefield." She turned and walked back to the drive, once again putting her hands on it. "I'm sure you and your crew have things to do...liking packing and preparing your last mission report in the Delta Quadrant, and please...as to what happens next...know that it's meant to be."

Captain Janeway wiped at her eyes, attempting to maintain decorum, but she was failing. She walked slowly up to the force field as she took Chakotay's hand in hers and they stood side by side. "Fran...I...thank you, on behalf of my entire crew we...thank you," she said as she smiled brightly. Fran and her sisters nodded, even as the assembled officers saw the hologram Fran distort for a few moments.

B'Elanna Torres stepped forward as she saw it too and she asked, "What's happening to the third Fran?"

Fran smiled more sadly this time as she spoke in a softer tone. "It takes a great deal of power to maintain this speed through hyperspace, power which not even your Warp Core could have provided, not in the timeframe I had in mind to fly _Voyager_ home...I pushed this vessel to its maximum tolerance already and luckily the structure of this ship is able to withstand hyperspace, but me and my sisters are...dying."

Chakotay and Kathryn, Tom, Harry, B'Elanna, Neelix and everyone else in engineering gasped.

"Dying, what do you mean you're dying?" asked Tom.

Fran looked over at him as she said, "Well as I said, it takes a great deal of energy to do this and your quantum slipstream drive produced a little more than half of that power, but the rest comes from...me." Fran glanced at her sisters as she continued her explanation.

"That's why there are two other Frans...triple the power I'm able to generate on my own, but I only had enough to replicate myself one time, if I had done it a third time well...I'm not even sure I could have and our combined energy may have been less than just two of us, and so that's why I needed the Doctor's mobile emitter. In less than an hour, she'll disappear as her power is expended and the emitter might burn out. I sort of made this up as I went along with being imprisoned the second time. As for me and my other sister...after the second hour, she will dissolve and collapse into dust as the connections between her nanites break down and the same thing will happen to me."

Chakotay squeezed Kathryn's hand as they listened, Chakotay feeling a big sorrow, as did they all. Certainly it was a fact that none of them knew Fran much, nor she them, but she was still a life form, and what was one of the fundamental principles of the Federation but the utmost respect for all forms of life. Tom came to stand by B'Elanna and he put his arm around her shoulders. Meanwhile, Harry stood by Neelix and they exchanged meaningful looks as shipmates and as good friends.

Tuvok, in his own way was disturbed by this news, but deep down he was also happy. He would see his wife and children again. Fran was doing the logical thing. _The needs of the many…_ thought the dark skinned Vulcan to himself as he watched the Frans in engineering via the bridge's main viewscreen along with the rest of the bridge crew.

Captain Janeway gave Chakotay's hand a final squeeze before she turned and addressed her crew. "B'Elanna, you better get down to astrometrics and see if Seven's modifications she used on the internal sensors can be used to determine if there is a danger from this new...hyperdrive. Ensign Kim, give her a hand, Seven still disabled the sensors and you've had experience working alongside Seven so you should be able to undo her sabotage. Mr. Neelix, I know this might be a shock to the crew, I will announce what has happened, I want you to go around the ship and maintain everyone's high spirits, no doubt there will be some anxiety mixed in. Tuvok, Chakotay and I will return to the bridge and do our best to get a sense of how this hyperspace thing works, there might be complications, best we do our best to make sure nothing happens."

Everyone nodded as Neelix, Harry, Tom and B'Elanna said "Aye Captain," and left to do what they had been tasked with.

She turned back as Chakotay was talking with Fran, while Tuvok had deactivated the viewscreen to start their work on the bridge.

"Fran...I wish I could have had more time to get to know you, but you've earned my trust now. I don't know what else to say except...thank you, Fran." Chakotay tried to smile, but he couldn't, he was sad. Fran nodded and smiled at him. "Thank you too, Chakotay, for trusting me, for caring about me. I still want to help your Doctor too, but this will still take time, so please can you do something for me…." She told him what it was.

Meanwhile, Captain Janeway had stepped away and accessed shipwade communications and had begun to address the crew.

"Attention all hands, this is the Captain...as you all know, we have a guest on board. Fran, the Replicator. Currently she is in main engineering and is using her technology to propel the ship through subspace, what she calls hyperspace at an...incredible velocity. We are projected to reach Earth in under three hours...I know this sounds too good to be true, but please everyone, attend to your stations, there's still plenty of time for something to go wrong. I will address you all again once we make it….home, Captain Janeway out."

_Home…_

Ensign Alexandria Munro turned away from staring out the window at the beautiful awe inspiring view of hyperspace out beyond the ship. She went to sit at the table in the crew lounge, around which Rick Biessman, Bolian crewman Chell, Telsia Murphy and Lieutenant Lester "Les" Foster were seated. "Oh man, home, I can't believe it!" Rick said as he smiled, running a hand through his short hair. "This really does seem too good to be true!" said Chell. "Maybe, but keep your optimism in check, crewman" came Foster's reply. "I wonder what this will mean for Tuvok's rumored plans to assemble a _Hazard_ Team?" asked Telsia. Alexandria wondered the same thing, but whatever happened next, she hoped she would still be able to serve with Telsia. She stared longer than she should have at her crewmate and friend and secret crush. Biessman grinned as he talked to Chell, "hey Chell, just be careful on your way back to engineering, remember what the Captain said about this mission...some power conduit overloads and you get sucked out into this hyperspace...BOO!" Chell reeled back, looking scared as Rick burst into laughter. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Munro smiled too, shaking her head as she thought to herself, _boys will be boys, no matter how tall they grow up to be,_ as she turned to stare back out the window before getting up with the rest of them to resume their duties.

_Cargo Bay 2, some time later…_

The Doctor stood, watching as Seven regenerated in her Borg alcove, but so as not wanting to come off as creepy or anything, he quickly left, returning to sickbay. He had asked the computer to notify him when Seven's regeneration cycle was complete.

Upon returning to sickbay, he found it in quite the shambles. "It appears as though a wild Targ rampaged through my sickbay…" he muttered with a sigh. Shaking his head, he proceeded to clean up where he could, noting it was going to be a long day.

Chakotay stood beside the Captain as they rode the turbolift back to the bridge. "Kathryn….I know it's a longshot, but Fran told me there was a way to help the Doctor...he lost some of his memories, mainly those since Seven of Nine came aboard. She said she wants us to let her mine our minds for memories of the Doctor since that time and she is hopeful that using memories from the crew, she can reconstruct something for him that way. I know when she attacked you it was out of jealousy, but she seems to have accepted that I have feelings for you. It can't have been a pleasant experience, feeling violated with having your memories altered, and when she took your form...but she's made up for it by potentially sacrificing herself now. If she's going to die, don't you think we should let her try this, for the Doctor, and for Seven of Nine?"

Kathryn Janeway looked at Chakotay, her right hand coming up to rest on her temple in her telltale sign of exasperation. "Alright, Chakotay...It's clear to me that Seven has feelings for the Doctor, and she wants him made whole again and if Fran can do it...then we'll volunteer." Chakotay nodded and smiled as the turbolift stopped and the doors hissed open.

"This has got to be one of the strangest mornings we've seen in a long time, and I hope Harry and B'Elanna can get the sensors working soon," said the Captain as they entered the bridge.

"You can say that again," replied the Commander with a knowing smile.

_Holodeck 2…_

The Replicator unit crackled as a strange purple energy suddenly flowed through it.

Within the Q-continuum, the Q continued to admonish Q for his violation and interference with that of _Voyager_. See what you have done now...they argued as they witnessed the strange power surge in the Replicator Machine. To his credit, Q defended himself by saying while this was not the first time he messed up...remembering it was he who caused the old earth space probe _Voyager_ _VI_, to be transported to the far side of the Universe and turned into V'ger...he was making up for it by helping them get home a lot sooner. Sure they would miss a few people, namely the Borg Children, among other major differences to the timeline, but so what? Q felt sorry for them and just wanted to help in his own way and the most surprising thing to him was that his mate, Lady Q and his son, Q Junior were supportive. Q had always been the biggest maverick in the entire Continuum, but so be it. The Q decided this had gone on too long to put things back the way they were meant to be, but at least in some segments of the Multiverse of which the Q always watched, the timeline of _Voyager_ was unaltered...until that pesky Admiral Janeway business that would occur. However, what was happening to the Replicator Machine was not the doing of the Q and more importantly and disturbingly, they seemed to be unable to stop it or even know what was causing it.

The lights of the Holodeck ceased, bathing the room in near darkness.

"Where the hell am I….why is it so dark, damn it!" came a sardonic voice.

The shadowy figure made their way towards the holodeck's exit and pried the doors open with their bare hands. Fingers gripped the door, but they were human fingers, and the human soon emerged from the darkness. He was a young man who appeared to be in his twenties, with tousled brown hair and a strong sure footed body, attired in black trousers, earth style shoes and a simple white shirt rolled up at the sleeves. Two female crewmen rounded the corridor, one of which just so happened to be Juliet Jurot, a Betazoid, but she did not sense the new Replicator and the man raised his hands as they neared. His fingers elongated like liquid metal forming into spikes as he impaled them through their eye sockets. They never had time to cry out before they dropped to the blood splattered deck.

The strange man stood over them and smiled, staring at his reformed hands for a moment. "Now that was cool, as I once heard someone say…oh, I'm so sorry, ladies," said the man in a tone laced with false concern as an evil smile curved his lips while he stared down at their bodies.

"You may call me Lore."


	11. Chapter 11: Smoothing out the Wrinkles

Chell looked around as he walked along through the corridor, still a bit nervous. _That Beissman...when we make it back I'm requesting a transfer…_

He stopped cold, his hand flying up to his mouth in horror as he saw Jurot and who looked like crewman Bittle, dead with holes where there eyes had been. His hand flew up to his comm-badge as he patched in to sickbay. "Crewman Chell to sickbay, D-doctor, help! Outside holodeck 2! It's crewmen Jurot and Bittle! They-they…." Chell swooned and steadied himself against the bulkhead.

_Hello, crewman Chell? _The Doctor said over the comm-link. Chell slapped himself as he muttered, "get it together, you were trained by Tuvok and Lieutenant Foster!" He steadied himself as he continued in a firmer tone, "Juliet Jurot and Crewman Bittle are dead, Doctor, and I'm right outside holodeck 2...and from the looks of things, something forced its way out from inside the holodeck."

_The Replicator machine…._ thought the Doctor to himself as he instinctively reached for the small dias upon which is mobile emitter always sat. He frowned and shook his head at his lapse in memory, wondering where it could be, but he couldn't think of that now. He left sickbay with haste after grabbing his medical tricorder, practically running through the corridor enroute to the turbolift.

As he rode the lift, having told the computer his destination, dread was growing within him. There is no way the machine should have malfunctioned like this…

Keying into the comm, he contacted the bridge, informing them of the real threat of another unknown Replicator now running lose on the ship.

The thrum of the intruder alert klaxon was music to his ears as he exited the turbolift, walking quickly around the slight curve in the corridor where he found Chell pacing in front of the murdered crewmen.

Chell stood off to the side as the Doctor came to crouch next to Jurot and Bittle's bodies. His face was grim as he scanned them, deducing their time of death. He frowned, checking his readings. There were no trace nanites in the wounds, most curious. He stood and turned, seeing Chell was sweating and breathing heavily. "Please, Chell, try to calm yourself, you did the right thing."

To his credit, Chell nodded and closed his eyes, trying to maintain his calm, as Tuvok had taught him.

_Meanwhile, Astrometrics…._

Ensign Kim and B'Elanna Torres were hard at work trying to get internal sensors working again. Lt. Torres and Harry worked in silence, proving their efficiency and expertise. After a few more minutes, Torres smiled, punching Harry in his shoulder as she said "YES," to which he recoiled and said "ow, hey!"

She blinked and said "oh yeah,sorry Harry…" sometimes she forgot her Klingon strength. She turned as they regarded the giant curved viewscreen, now able to detect Fran and her sisters, the Doctor and…

Harry blinked and checked his readings, establishing a link to the ship's internal audio-visual sensors as they zoomed in on a young looking human walking casually through deck 10 and heading for the shuttlebay. "That looks like Data...from the enterprise…" B'Elanna said, her disbelief matching Harry's own. Patching the feed to the bridge they showed it side by side with the time of the attack outside the corridor in front of holodeck 2 to the Captain and Commander.

They all watched the replay of the sensor recording. "...you may call me Lore…." Captain Janeway stood quickly as she said "red alert, all hands, arm yourselves. Security seal off deck 10. Mr. Tuvok, post security details at every access point and evacuate the deck." As the red alert sounded, Commander Chakotay had gone to the Ops station and proceeded to erect force fields to trap Lore just outside the shuttle bay. Tuvok relayed the ordered via his console at tactical.

"Captain, it would appear the Lore has been contained, he does not seem to be moving any longer, however, sensors have detected an unusual reading...positronic," Tuvok said with an arched eyebrow.

"Damn," Janeway said as she confirmed via her command console by her chair. "He's not just a Replicator...he's an Android Replicator." "Captain?" came Chakotay's concern as he stood at Ops.

"We need to get to engineering, Chakotay. Tuvok, get down to the shuttlebay and make sure Lore can't get in, obviously he wants to leave the ship, and we can't allow that," Janeway said as the three of them boarded the turbolift.

"Aye, Captain," said the Vulcan as the Bridge's turbolift doors hissed shut. They rode along as the Captain proceeded to debrief her officers. "About 14 years ago, on the colony where Data of the _Enterprise_ was found, the _Enterprise-D_ returned there and found Lore, Data's older brother, but according to Captain Picard's reports, Lore was evil, he lacked empathy but he was just as strong as Data. A few years later, Data was being controlled by Lore and he had to damage and deactivate his brother." The two men nodded, only being filled in because they did not know the whole story. Most starfleet captains knew about Lore as he was classified as a need-to-know level threat.

As the turbolift stopped to let Tuvok out, Janeway stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, "Be careful, old friend." Tuvok nodded curtly and left the lift.

"I don't know how the hell Lore got here, but obviously he's not in his last body, someone put his consciousness inside this new human looking one...and only the Q can do something like that, as far as we know…" said the Captain, to which Chakotay replied, "as far as we know."

They exited the turbolift and soon entered Engineering, going up to the forcefield as the original Fran turned to regard them. "Captain, Chakotay?"

Janeway folded her arms around her middle, and Chakotay was having trouble remembering the last time he had seen Kathryn looking so apprehensive. "Fran, another Replicator was created, but he was not based on a human, like you and the Doctor...he was based in a powerful Android made by someone from our reality. I know-" she turned as did they all to see the Doctor entering, looking grim.

"Sorry, Captain, but I had to find you to tell you something, Crewmen Bittle and Jurot have been killed, and although I strongly suspect it was another Replicator, I couldn't find even a single nanite on them." Chakotay clenched his jaw, his hand balling into a fist as the Captain nodded.

"We know, Doctor, and we believe we know how...the Replicator is based on an Android, not a human. Specifically Lore, the evil twin brother of Lieutenant Commander Data of the _Enterprise-E._"

The Doctor's eyes widened, as he knew along with most of the crew what Data and his kin were capable of. "Seven!" he turned to rush out, but Janeway's voice rang out, "Doctor, please...Lore is contained and Tuvok is on his way to him just outside the shuttle bay with a security force."

Fran once more dropped her hands away from lending her power to the converted hyper drive.

"Captain, I need to go there too, if this Lore breaks free, you can't stop him, as Chakotay knows, your phasers might stun us momentarily, but we can absorb most forms of directed energy, only I can stop him…" she paused to look over at the Doctor, who tilted his head slightly. "I mean, sorry Doctor, but you're not a fighter, and besides...this crew can't lose you...Seven can't lose you."

The Doctor nodded, still looking pretty somber. "You're right Fran, I'm a Doctor, not a fighter...but there is still something I can do…" He told them.

_Deck 10 outside the Shuttle Bay…._

Lore sighed in exasperation. Having asked the ship's name and position in Federation space, he was momentarily dismayed to find out that he was in the Delta Quadrant on _Voyager_. No matter, he never liked the Federation in the first place, what with the whole _the brothers of Soong have joined together...and together, we will destroy the Federation…_ thing.

Lore stood at the edge of the force field, tapping on it yet again with his slightly bloody fingertips, having wiped most of the blood of those women off on his pants. He turned to look the other way as a dark skinned Vulcan and 3 humans stopped at the other end of the corridor beyond that force field's placement. "Well well...Tuvok, isn't it?" Lore said with a lithe smirk.

"Lore...how did you come to be aboard this vessel?" asked Tuvok, not even slightly fazed that the Android-Replicator knew his name, no doubt gleaned from Jurot or Bittle from when he had killed them, a logical conclusion.

"You got me, Vulcan...the last thing I remember was telling my younger brother Data that I loved him...I wish I could have landed on my back to be able to stare up at his face then….how I would have laughed after that, he was so gullible it was great!" Lore spread his arms for dramatic affect.

All of them looked up as the overhead lights flickered, making Lore tap on the force field on his side again. "Having trouble with the electric bill, or did starfleet use recycled materials on this pathetic ship?"

The three officers with Tuvok, one of whom just happened to be Alexandria Munro, tensed. _How dare this pile of scrap say that about Voyager...he killed Juilet…_ Alex, as her friends called her, gripped her phaser rifle harder, aiming it at the human looking machine.

Tuvok directed his personnel to take aim at the Replicator and he commended they set them to kill, recalling how the maximum stun had only injured Fran during the sick bay incident. "Computer, drop the force field, security clearance, Tuvok-Pi-Al-" "STOP!" he turned as they found Fran approaching, along with Commander Chakotay. The other three security officers kept their sights on Lore.

Lore seized his chance, he rushed them, grunting as he hit the force field, but his determination and observation that their power was being diverted, allowed him to break through the force field which fizzled and went out. Ensign Munro, ensign Laird and crewman Odell opened fire before the force field had even completely deactivated.

The combined force of 3 phaser beams hitting Lore in the chest pushed him back until he hit the other force field he had been standing before, before. He landed against it and slide down, looking at the assembled people as he merely grinned and said excitedly "Woo! Do it again, come on do it again!" even as his chest smoked and therein lay a gaping silvery hole, his internal Android mechanisms askew, but the ragged hole was already sealing as he clapped mockingly and ever so slowly raised his hands.

Tuvok and his security detail aimed their phasers at Lore. "Don't move," Tuvok said, raising his hand phaser higher and aiming right at Lore's head. Chakotay moved to stand beside the Vulcan as he congratulated him and the others on their quick action. Fran smiled in relief, but she knew it was not over yet and her smile faltered as she watched Lore, unable to sense him at all which was deeply troubling.

She could only watch as he smiled...a cold remorseless smile that made her shiver, and she never shivered.


	12. Chapter 12: Tinker, Tailor, Doctor, Cry

Lore lunged quickly, but even as Munro and the others opened fire, they watched as their phaser beams had no affect. The Android-Replicator merely glowed briefly as he appeared to simply absorb the energy. He smiled coldly, thrusting his left palm quickly and striking Odell in his chest, sending him flying back into Tuvok who did his best to catch his crewmate.

"Tingly!" Lore intoned with a sneer, slapping Munro's weapon from her hands and he gripped her uniform and tossed her aside. Ensign Laird tried to fire again, but Lore was frighteningly fast, gripping the end of her phaser rifle and he crushed the tip as if it were tinfoil. Reaching up, he snapped her neck swiftly, that sick smile of glee never leaving his face.

Fran shoved Chakotay aside, out of harm's way and she dove at Lore. He saw her coming and pivoted out of the way, bringing his elbow down hard on her shoulder, making her cry out and slam to the deck hard.

"A feisty one, aren't you?" The evil machine gesticulated at the downed crew. "Now, unless you want me to kill all of them, help me bring down their forcefield, and I'll spare them, if you don't I'll start with the first officer," Lore said, having noticed the pips on the tattooed man further down the corridor.

"No, please don't….I'll help you…" Fran said, getting to her feet, looking mortified at the dead young ensign he had already killed.

"Fran, do not cooperate with him!" Tuvok said, helping the injured Odell to steady himself as blood trickled down his chin.

Alex Munro, blinked, trying to clear the fog from her mind, she must have suffered a concussion. She knew what she had to do though, and she feigned unconsciousness, falling over onto the deck.

Lore gave her no more than a dismissive glance, jostling Fran along and he watched her, mimicking her movements as she stood opposite him and placed her hand on the bulkhead just before the forcefield. Her hand turned silver as she phased her limb into the bulkhead, wrapping her hand around the optronic power relay cables within and tearing them with a yank. Lore did the same, surprised at his own capabilities. He would certainly have to thank whoever made him into being in this new and vastly improved body, even if it was far from the wretched Federation, whose ideals he despised so. Fran moved her arm in such a way as to conceal it from his view, hoping he did not notice how her forearm made a curious distortion where it stuck out of the bulkhead, which he didn't notice and for which Fran was thankful.

The forcefield fizzled and dropped and he turned as he heard a female's voice, that of the Captain, issue from Tuvok's comm-badge.

"_Janeway to Tuvok, report, what's going on?_"

Before Tuvok could reply, Lore crossed the gap in distance in scant seconds, his form a blur and he rendered Tuvok unconscious with a vulcan nerve pinch. Tuvok grunted and hit the deck and Chakotay seethed with anger, helpless against the evil android-replicator. All he could do was maintain his distance, his hands balled into fists.

Chakotay had to do something, he could not just stand there and let Lore escape the ship. As Lore turned to head to the shuttlebay with Fran in tow, he lunged and scooped up Tuvok's hand phaser, maximum setting. As he cast his eyes and his aim at Lore, he stopped, seeing that he had placed Fran between himself and the commander.

Fran shook her head at Chakotay, not because she was afraid to be in the line of fire, but because she knew it wouldn't work, human form or not, it was built into all Replicators to be able to absorb most known forms of energy once they adapted to it.

With his arm around her neck, he laughed and dragged her along and into the shuttlebay.

"What do you hope to accomplish?" Fran asked as she was dragged along, not resisting, but neither was she being allowed to walk freely.

"It's simple...we *are* in the Delta Quadrant...I'm going to do what I was doing before...find a borg ship, sever them from the Collective and return to Federation space and destroy them!"

"Why? How?" Fran asked as she watched the doors close and Lore continued to drag her away with him towards the biggest ship he saw, the _Delta Flyer_.

"Because I can...because it's fun, now just shut up!" he replied, tightening his arm around her neck.

Meanwhile, Chakotay had contacted the Captain, apprising her of the situation and he bent low over Tuvok to check on his friend. Since he didn't have a tricorder, he did his best to check the security chief's vitals with his touch and visually. Odell meanwhile, clutching his bruised chest, walked over to Munro and as he reached to check her pulse, she sat up fast, startling him and making him fall back onto his ass. "Jesus Christ, Munro!"

She looked at him apologetically, saying a quick "sorry," and she looked at Commander Chakotay.

"Sir, permission to go after them and stop Lore!" she asked, wincing from her aching head.

Chakotay nodded, knowing there was a plan, but as he saw Munro's resolve, not to mention her anger and sadness as she looked at Laird's body, he knew all too well the risks he used to take to protect his _Maquis_ comrades years ago before Voyager. "Granted, and Alex," he said, addressing her by her first name, protocol be damned. "Give him hell."

Meanwhile, on the Flyer, Lore had shunted Fran into the side alcove, trapping her with a forcefield. "Don't worry, I'm not going to terminate you, in fact you're essential...the knowledge you have will enable me to enhance the Borg I will command and no one will be able to stop us!"

"You're insane," Fran stated, matter-of-factly.

"Maybe so, but I'm free, I'm...oh what's the phrase…" Lore muttered, having turned back to work the controls and prepare for take off.

"I am footloose and fancy free," came a voice behind him. Lore turned to see Fran was no more, instead seeing The Doctor.

As his holographic form shimmered, he passed partially through the forcefield, able to tap the nearby console and deactivate the field, thus freeing his mobile emitter he had concealed in his right foot under his pants. He lunged and Lore swung at him, his hands passing through him with a distorted sizzle. "God damn it!" he swore as The Doctor deactivated the shuttle's inertial dampeners and he paused as Lore prepared to attack him again. "Divine intervention is...at this point...unlikely…" and he tapped the helm controls, thankful that Mr. Paris had schooled him in piloting, annoying though he could be. The flyer took off at full speed, sending them both hurling into the aft section of the bridge compartment.

_Several moments earlier…_

Munro paused against the open doorway, pulling back her sleeve to reveal the first prototype for a miniaturized transporter buffer, the only one that was hand-crafted by Seven of Nine and

Crewman Oviado, a weapon's specialist. As a result it was without blueprints, there were no backed up computer plans for it. She turned it on and in her hands, in twin flourishes of blue-whitle sparkling light, appeared two detonator packs with magnetic couplers, meaning they stuck to any metallic surface they were thrown at.

She wound up and threw them with all of her might and they stuck fast to the Delta Flyer's starboard impulse engine. The Flyer suddenly pushed to it's fastest sub-light speed, smashing through the shuttle-bay door. Munro was yanked back into the corridor right as the bay became depressurized. The doors closed and she smiled at Chakotay in thanks, looking at the doors and imagining the Flyer leaving the ship as she proclaimed… "absorb *that* you bastard…"

Lore was pinned to the wall, seeing the shuttle ram into the door and through them and beyond them...a shimmering white-blue tunnel of energy. The Flyer swung violently as it was rocked by an explosion on it's hull, pitching into a nosedive as it was thrown clear and back into normal space. "What did you do!?" he demanded as The Doctor stood his ground. "I saved my crew, my ship...my friends…my family."

The doctor turned and phased his holographic hand into the helm and shorted it out. Lore raged, trying in vain to pummel the hologram, his fists smashing through the control console as they went through the Doctor's body.

He looked out through the viewscreen, seeing that the ship was adrift and steadily descending into the heart of a type A star, a blue star, one of the hottest kind. "No, this isn't how it was supposed to go! This isn't how it's supposed to go!" Lore stepped back, smashing the tactical console into twisted metal with his left fist.

The Doctor merely stood there, looking smug as he crossed his arms. "You know something, Lore...if I learned anything, it's that life has a funny way of tossing us into the wild…across the Galaxy."

As he said that, the doomed shuttle accelerated into the star, the hull melting and as the pressure reached the warp core, the Delta Flyer exploded and Lore and The Doctor were no more.

_Voyager, sometime later…._

Tom Paris tapped his Tricorder, taking further readings of Alexandria Munro. Crewman Telsia Murphy stood at the side of the biobed as Mr. Paris finished his examination. The Captain and Chakotay also stood nearby, conversing quietly as Chakotay filled her in, reporting on the success of the Doctor's plan.

"You had me worried, you know, Alex…" Telsia said quietly, reaching to hold Alex's hand. "Yeah, I know, and I'm sorry...but I could make it up to you, maybe we can go to the mess hall for some dinner?" Alex asked, her voice having a hopeful tone. "Sounds like a date!" Telsia said. Alex smiled, now set that she would confess her feelings for the other young woman.

Tom smiled as he lowered his tricorder, saying "well, apart from being a little sore the next few days, you should be fine, Alex…" his voice trailed off as his face took on a somber expression. "I'm sorry about Jurot and Laird…" To that, both women nodded and Telsia squeezed Alex's hand tighter, not knowing just yet just how much Munro appreciated that show of support and affection.

"_Torres to Captain Janeway…."_ came B'Elanna's voice over the ship's comm.

"Go ahead, Lieutenant," Captain Janeway replied as she tapped her comm-badge.

"_We finally got the ship's internal sensors recalibrated and we've detected what appears to be hyperspace radiation coming into the ship from the shuttle-bay. Ensign Kim erected a forcefield to contain it but it's not having much effect, but given the amount and our allocation of power to the hyperdrive, it won't be long until it spreads through the ship. I already contacted Tuvok and he's evacuating deck 10...but ma'am...the Replicators...even with that forcefield around the hyperdrive, I don't know if the radiation will affect them, to say nothing of the rest of the ship…"_

_Damn…_ Janeway thought. "Maybe Seven could do something…." Chakotay mentioned after B'Elanna finished her report.

They exchanged looks, nothing they could think of besides that came to mind and they informed Tom and the other two women. Mr. Paris nodded as he went to check on Odell in the surgical bay who was unconscious.

"Ma'am, can we do anything to help?" asked Ensign Munro. The Captain nodded and directed them to help with the evacuation and radiation protocols. They acknowledged her order, Murphy helping Munro to stand from the biobed, and left Sickbay to carry it out and meet up with Tuvok.

Janeway and Chakotay left Sickbay and headed to Cargo Bay 2 to awaken Seven of Nine. Chakotay and Janeway rode in tense silence in the turbolift, both of them working out what to say to Seven once they disrupted her regeneration cycle.

The pair of them entered the cargo bay and Janeway walked up to Seven's Borg alcove, tapping the sequence to end her regeneration cycle.

Chakotay stood before her and the Captain joined him as Seven slowly opened her eyes.

"Captain? Commander?" she asked, looking confused. They stepped back as she stepped down.

"Seven, we need your help, please, can you come with us to Engineering?" asked Janeway and she nodded curtly like she always does. As the trio walked, they filled in the details of everything that happened, since Seven had to be put in her alcove.

She rode in the turbolift as they talked, asking questions where she felt it was appropriate.

"So, the Doctor had a plan to deal with Lore, who came into being through the replicator machine...where is he? Why wasn't he with you when I was awoken?"

Janeway and Chakotay exchanged looks, and Kathryn decided it was best if she told Seven.

"Seven, the Doctor took the form of Fran, and switched his mind back to his holographic form. He felt it was necessary, since he was the only one capable of passing through any forcefields Lore would have erected in the _Delta Flyer._ From what Ensign Munro reported, he managed to engage the Flyer's impulse engines and fly the ship out into the hyperspace tunnel. Ensign Munro did what she thought was best and put explosives on the hull of the ship before it left _Voyager."_

"I gave her permission to try stop Lore by any means necessary...the Doctor's initial idea was to cast Lore adrift and then destroy his mobile emitter, but we don't know exactly what happened after they were thrown clear of the hyperspace corridor...he did it to protect us, to save this family and to save you…" Chakotay finished and they watched Seven of Nine...stoic, efficient, perfectionist Seven of Nine cry into her hands. Kathyrn Janeway let protocol be damned and she hugged her friend, feeling Chakotay hugging Seven as well when he wrapped his arms around the both of them.

Seven of Nine tried to compose herself, the ache she was feeling was like nothing she felt before, not even the times she missed her assimilated parents.

Soon they entered main Engineering, where Fran and her remaining replicator sister continued to bolster the energy of the hyperdrive.

The forcefield had been dropped, they noticed when they entered.

"Hello, Captain, Commander and Seven of Nine," Fran said as she glanced at them from the starboard side of the engine. Seven stood, her hands shaking. How dare Fran sound so pleased? The Doctor was gone, and it was Fran's fault for making the replicator unit in the first place!

The Captain and Chakotay suddenly had to restrain the ex-Borg as she tried to cross Engineering to attack Fran. "I hate you!" Seven was very angry. It was strange, the pain and buzzing were gone from her head now, she felt free to express herself, and express herself she did as the two security personnel, Kendrick Biessman and Lieutenant Les Foster also helped to restrain Seven of Nine.

She stopped struggling suddenly, her eyes going wide, fresh tears streaming down her beautiful face as someone stepped out from behind the former warp core/quantum slipstream drive-now-hyperdrive.

"Please state the nature of the Medical Emergency," said the Doctor with a smile as he walked up to Seven and hugged her in front of the crew, to even the surprise of Chakotay and Janeway.

Fran smiled with a twinge of sadness right as her twin "sister" disintegrated into a silvery pile of powder on the deck on the other side of the hyperdrive.


	13. Chapter 13: The Best Laid Plans

The Doctor let Seven go, and he took a step back as the women wiped her tears and he lifted a hand and wiped one she missed with tender affection.

"I'm sorry, Seven, I didn't want to make you sad, but I had to keep everyone in the dark about my plan because Lore could have found out through interrogation or that...other way."

He looked over to the Captain and the Commander apologetically.

"Fran's explanation about her origins, ethically counter-productive as it might seem to us, gave me the idea...you see, I talked to the hologram Fran….HoloFran? No?" The Doctor smirked a bit at his small attempt to lighten the mood. "She allowed me to overwrite her mind with a replicated version of my own...as Fran replicated herself, so too did I, although just the computer program...well, my mind, really." He glanced at Chakotay, once more his attention on Seven.

"I'm sure Chakotay briefed you on the rest...again I'm very sorry for making you all think...but I needed to employ that subterfuge. I hope you can understand, if not forgive me."

Seven was about to speak, but Fran interrupted, a hint of sorrow in her voice as she spoke up, making the Doctor and the others turn to face her, "I'm sorry, but I don't have much time left...and since my other sisters are now gone, I'm afraid we only have 2 options at this point. We drop out of hyperspace to dissipate the radiation and save the crew, which will result in the hyperdrive burning out, or…" she trailed off, staring at the Doctor.

"Yes, Fran, what?" chimed in Captain Janeway.

"I and your Doctor could go into the decompressed shuttlebay and work to repair the shuttlebay doors. This means that without my input, the hyperdrive would slow considerably and will eventually burn out anyway. However, there are some complications." She faltered, swaying unsteadily, but as the Doctor stepped forward to help her, she stopped him with a raised hand.

"I'm just starting to feel the effects of the power transfer since I'm the only one keeping it going now….please let me finish." He nodded and stepped back beside Seven as the others stood on either side of them.

"The complications are that, given the length of time me and your Doctor will be exposed to the radiation, we would be confined to the shuttlebay and I'm not sure how long. This also means that no one will be able to use the shuttlebay, to enter it for a long time, unless we were to leave the ship...permanently." She saw Seven hold the Doctor's hand, tightening her grip.

"The other issue with plan is that, since we would be confined to the bay, I would be unable to program your computer to replicate the parts we would need to fix the hyperdrive when it burns out. The components are very complex and I would need to assemble them piece by piece which could take months."

As she spoke, Tom and Harry had entered, having finished with the radiation protocols. Mr. Paris briefed the Captain that Tuvok had returned to the bridge to monitor the levels and also watch the progress of their hyperspace travel.

"Captain?" Harry said, asking Janeway for permission to address Fran. She knew him well, and she trusted her officer, gesturing for him to walk past and speak to the Replicator.

"Fran?" said the seasoned young man. She smiled as she kept her left hand on the hyperdrive.

"Hello, Harry Kim."

"Fran...please, do you remember when I told you that it's not the destination that matters...it's the journey? There's no need to sacrifice yourself, just drop us out of hyperspace, now please. I know you want to help us, but we can repair the ship just as well even if it takes longer."

Seven finally spoke up, stepping forward. "Fran...I am sorry that I tried to harm you, but when I thought…" she shook her head. "I have a plan to keep the hyperdrive powered and repair the shuttle bay doors with no risk to you or The Doctor. The Borg employ a type of projected structural integrity field which I believe will counter the hyperspace radiation. However, my plan entails the dismantling and utilization of the Replicator machine, since we do not have the power reserves to replicate anything. It could have been possible to use the Doctor's mobile emitter to project the device, but since it's….loss…" she stopped talking as she felt a sting in her chest. She was still feeling the loss of the Doctor's copy. He was here and yet...she wondered how humans did it, how could they rationalize and stay sane when these sorts of things happened?

She went on, "I will also require Lieutenant Torres and Ensign Kim's assistance to dismantle one of the Borg regeneration alcoves. With the resources of both technologies, I can create the machine to project the field, and all it would take would be a few minutes for you to enter the shuttlebay with it and activate it, Fran. We'll still need to drop back into normal space, but given the immediate danger to this crew, I think it would be the best course of action."

Fran nodded, looking at the Captain who nodded in agreement with Seven of Nine and Fran let her hand fall away from the drive, having sent a command to it just before she lost touch.

_Voyager_ dropped back into normal space, and Tuvok was provided with sensor readings and he arched his brow as he tended to do, tapping into the comm to contact the Captain. "Tuvok to the Captain…" _Yes, Tuvok? _"Sensors have confirmed that we have returned to normal space, has something happened to Fran?" _No, Tuvok, she's fine, but there's been a delay, let's just say. Seven of Nine has a plan._ The Vulcan tilted his head quizzically, but he trusted his Captain without fail, but there was something else he needed to report.

Captain Janeway walked over to Fran and she took her hand and clasped it. "Thank you, Fran."

The Replicator looked down at Janeway's hands clasping hers and she looked back up surprised at the human woman. "Thank me? How can you say that...how can you even be near me let alone touch me after what I did to you? What my actions wrought upon this crew, what about Lore?" Janeway mused as she smiled. "It's part of being human...having compassion...learning to forgive."

_Captain, according to our astrometric sensors, we are in the star system J-25 and sensors have also detected a warp signature_. According to the readings...it is Borg.

Janeway's smile left her face. "Yellow alert, Commander, return to the bridge and run continuous sensor sweeps for Borg vessels." Chakotay nodded and he smiled fleetingly at Fran and left with Kim and Paris in tow.

Fran for her part, recalled the conversation she and Seven had about the terrifying enemy of their Federation, the Borg. She could see the anxiety apparent on everyone's faces, even from the Doctor and Seven of Nine.

"System J-25...why does that sound familiar…" Janeway muttered to herself as she regarded Seven and The Doctor and Fran, to which Seven replied. "It's where the Federation Starship, the _Enterprise D,_ encountered a Borg Cube approximately 10 years ago. The inhabitants of this system were assimilated a century ago."

"Damn, so the Borg have been here...how likely are they to show up in this star system?" questioned the Captain.

"It is a probability...and I hope they do." Seven intoned and everyone looked at her.

"That's the other part of my plan...we must infiltrate a Borg ship and steal a Transwarp coil. I believe it will allow us to maintain the hyperdrive long enough to return to Sector 001."

"Seven, are you certain you're alright?" asked the Doctor and he attempted to feel her forehead since he did not have a tricorder. "Yes, I'm fine," she said in mild irritation as she stopped him firmly yet with a gentle inflection laced in her voice. She continued on.

"I realize this is a high risk to ask the crew to undertake, to say nothing of the possibility of the Borg assimilating the hyperspace technology or the technology of the Replicators...however, with Fran and the Doctor's help, I think we can succeed."

"It *could* work, Captain," Lt. Torres said as she stepped up.

Captain Janeway sighed, rubbing her temple. "Okay, this is one of the most incredulous, lunatic plans I've ever heard in my entire career...but it does have merit. B'Elanna, have all your engineering personnel that can be spared from radiation decontamination duty begin work on repairing the shuttle bay door, and then get Harry to give you a hand with the first part of Seven's plan by dismantling one of the Borg alcoves in cargo bay 2." The half-Klingon nodded and she turned away to begin issuing assignments and contact Kim.

Fran took a deep breath, even though she didn't need to breathe, but she had seen these humans do so and was merely mimicking them as she let it out slowly. "I guess I should go start taking apart the Replicator Unit….Doctor, can you help me, since we can work without fatigue...and please don't worry, I'll talk you through the process." The Doctor nodded, having about to have said "I'm a Doctor, not an engineer," but he was thankful he didn't have to fall back into that old habit.

Meanwhile, Mr. Neelix was keeping company with young Naomi Wildman, playing with her in her quarters, she was sad that the pretty blue light had faded outside the ship, and while Neelix was also puzzled, he reassured her there was nothing to worry about. He knew the crew had things under control.

Some time later, Seven was busy with Kim and Torres as they worked to take apart one of the Borg alcoves and The Doctor and Fran, worked in Holodeck 2 under the supervision of B'Elanna's right hand. The Former Acting Chief Engineer Joseph Carey who was also known as Joe to the crew, was busy taking apart the Replicator Unit along with the two Replicators.

"You know...I think even though we're cannibalizing this thing, we should have given it a better name…" said Joe to them. The Doctor made a derisive face, but Fran nodded and smiled. "When I was created, I did not have a name and my creator, Doctor Rodney Mckay, gave me my name after I noticed he had a name and his colleague Doctor Radek Zelenka as well."

"I also don't have a name you know, but I've tried a few times," the Doctor said as they worked.

"Really?" asked Fran and she smiled. "It's not something I've given much consideration to, you know," the Doctor said, sounding slightly offended, or was it jealous?

As they worked, the Doctor kept part of his mind on Seven. _Maybe...when we get back underway, I can ask Seven to give me a name too...after all, I think..therefore I am._

Captain Janeway had convened a small meeting of a few of her senior officers, the ones who were not busy currently, as well as a few other pertinent personnel. Lt. Les Foster, Tuvok, Chakotay, Tom Paris, Ensign Alexandria "Alex" Munro and of course herself.

She briefed them on Seven of Nine's plans, and Tuvok told her about his plan that was still in its early stages about the formation of the Hazard Team. Given that they were going to seek out and infiltrate a Borg Ship, this seemed as good a time as any to implement it.

"Now that we are not using the hyperdrive, it is possible to conduct holodeck simulations of a potential Borg target vessel, a Cube or a Sphere."

"Come on now, this plan is crazy!" Munro spoke up. "Sorry, Tuvok, Captain...but how exactly are we supposed to beam onto a Borg ship, filled with hundreds or thousands of Borg and beam back out with a transwarp coil?"

"I think Alex is right, Ma'am," said Paris.

Captain Janeway looked at Commander Chakotay for his advice. "I think Ensign Munro is right, Captain. No matter what tactical advantage Seven or Fran can give us, it's just far too risky. Especially if the Borg end up with Fran's technology. I think we should just continue the rest of the way with our normal warp travel."

Janeway pursed her lips together, knowing Chakotay had a point. The Captain tapped her Comm Badge and contacted Seven of Nine. She informed her of a change of plans, and asked her to meet the rest of the senior officers in the astrometrics lab. After acknowledging her request, Janeway then proceeded to contact the rest of them and advise them of the lab meeting.

_20 minutes later…_

All of the senior officers, excluding Tom Paris who had remained on the Bridge to monitor the region, were assembled in Astrometrics. Even Neelix was asked to attend. The captain had contacted him last, only so she could ask him to inform the crew of their stop, which was for the sake of ship repairs. Fran was also there of course. In this short time they had come to trust her enough that she no longer needed a security escort, still, Tuvok was armed with his hand phaser and the Doctor remained slightly behind his fellow Replicator, just in case.

"Thank you all for coming," began the Captain, "now, as you know Seven had a plan to get us back underway, but the risk of staying in this sector are too great. It's still a good thing that the Replicator machine has been dismantled, so nothing like the Lore incident can happen again.

I've chosen to continue now the rest of the way under normal warp travel, but that will still take a few days to return our warp core to its original configuration, and-"

The Captain was interrupted by the Red Alert klaxon. Tom's voice issued from the ship's comm.

_Red Alert, all hands to battle stations, we're under attack, it's a Borg ship, it's- _but it was cut off as the ship was rocked by a barrage of weapon's fire, and everyone wobbled. The Captain wasted no time issuing orders.

"Tuvok, take a security team to guard the hyperdrive, B'Elanna, get down there and see if you can create a modulating force-field so if we're boarded the Borg can't get at it or attempt to beam it off the ship. Seven, Fran, come with me and Commander Chakotay to the bridge. Neelix, assist the Doctor in sickbay, no doubt we've already had some injuries. Harry, stay here and see if our sensors can give us any edge against the Borg vessel." Her officers nodded and turned to leave to carry out their orders.

Seven piped up. "Captain, if I may, I want to stay with Harry...maybe I can help to bolster the sensors to find the best weakness to exploit in the Borg ship?"

Janeway nodded, already heading out of the lab with the rest of them. "All right, Seven. Tuvok?"

The security chief nodded, knowing what the Captain wanted intuitively and he gave his phaser to the youthful ensign. Kim smiled and nodded as he and Seven turned away to get to work. They saw that thankfully, it was merely a Borg probe ship according to the sensor readings, which the Captain was grateful for.

Unfortunately, as she turned and left, stumbling against the bulkhead in the corridor as another attack from the Borg rocked the ship, her sense of relief was not certain to last, of that she was certain…


End file.
